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NOPE · AI and people

AI incidents

Reports of AI-related harm and adverse experiences affecting people’s safety, wellbeing, rights and livelihoods. Explore what happened and the evidence available.

NOPE’s core concern is when AI communicates with a person, acts on their behalf, or depicts or impersonates them. The tracker also records consequential decisions, claims and privacy harms involving AI. Each case needs a described connection between AI use and the harm, including private information recorded into or disclosed to an AI service. Each account is reviewed for publication; claims may remain uncorroborated or disputed. How we review and count cases

In this selection

Published cases
18
Countries with reported events
5
Located 9 of 18 cases · 9 unknown
Languages in checked sources
9
Recorded for 18 of 18 cases

These figures describe the cases collected by NOPE. Coverage varies with discovery, reporting and available evidence. They do not estimate how often AI-related harm occurs.

Response counts currently use each case’s principal recorded outcome. Further proceedings may be described in its account.

Cases in this selection, counted once in their first known event year. A series may continue beyond that year. Reporting and collection dates are excluded. NOPE has searched recent events more thoroughly than earlier years, so bar heights also reflect collection effort.

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18 of 1101 published cases

Event date unknownThailandUnidentified video tool

Thai PBS Verify says a Crystallum AI investment advert used an AI deepfake of a former NHK World anchor; she said she was shocked her image was used

In August 2025 Thai PBS Verify reported a Facebook advert that carried the Thai PBS World Tonight logo and showed a news anchor apparently interviewing two prominent Thai business leaders about an investment scheme called Crystallum AI. The anchor was a former NHK World presenter who had never anchored for Thai PBS. Thai PBS Verify traced the footage to a 2013 English-language report about flood housing, found that the logo had been changed and the English reporting replaced with a synthesized Thai voice, and said an AI detection tool gave a 72.3% probability that the clip was an AI deepfake. The former anchor said she was shocked her image was used to deceive people into investing and that it could discredit her reputation, and spoke out to warn others. No person who invested after seeing the advert is described.

Core concern Low reported severity Media Coverage

AI involvement reported · Causal attribution supported · 1 source · Added 01/11/2026

Event date unknownThailandUnidentified video tool

Thai PBS Verify says Facebook investment advert used an AI deepfake of a Thai PBS World anchor; the anchor said viewers could take it for real news

In mid-2025 a Facebook page using a news outlet's logo ran a two-minute video as adverts in which a Thai PBS World news anchor appeared to interview the chief executive of the Miss Universe Organization about an online investment platform said to turn 8,000 baht into as much as 800,000 baht. Thai PBS Verify reported on 22 July 2025 that the clip was an AI deepfake: it traced the anchor's footage to a Thai PBS World Tonight report of 24 June 2025, and the chairman of the company Guardian AI, whom it consulted as an AI image technology specialist, cited lip movements that do not match the voice and blurred facial features. The anchor told Thai PBS Verify that ordinary viewers could mistake it for real news, that this was the most convincing of at least three or four such incidents in a year, and that she was worried. No person who invested after seeing the advert is described.

Core concern Low reported severity Media Coverage

AI involvement reported · Causal attribution supported · 2 sources, 1 underlying account · Added 01/11/2026

Oct 2025United KingdomUnidentified video tool (suspected)

Fact-checker Full Fact says a video of Tory MP George Freeman announcing a defection to Reform UK was likely AI-made; he reported it to police

In October 2025 a video spread on Facebook and X that appeared to show George Freeman, the Conservative MP for Mid Norfolk and a former science minister, announcing that he was leaving the Conservatives to join Reform UK. Full Fact said on 20 October that the clip was very likely made using artificial intelligence: it matched his outfit and the Westminster background to a video he posted in April 2020, described the audio as stiff and unnaturally even, and said AI appeared to have been used to lip-sync the false words, while noting that an impersonator could not be ruled out. Freeman called the video an AI-generated deepfake made without his knowledge or consent and reported it to police. Norfolk Police said it was contacted on 16 October by the office of an MP about the video and opened an investigation into a potential false-communications offence. Freeman later told the Observer that friends and colleagues had sent him messages accusing him of betrayal, that Meta told him the video did not breach its guidelines, and that he found no law against the use of his identity; LBC reported in March 2026 that police told him it was not illegal. An anonymous creator told a local newspaper the video was made to show that people cannot tell fact from fiction.

Core concern Low reported severity Investigation Opened

AI involvement suspected · Causal attribution supported · 6 sources · Added 31/10/2026

Event date unknownKosovoUnidentified video tool

Fact-checkers say AI-manipulated videos of a former LDK MP and party youth members circulated before Kosovo's June 2026 election; he says they are manipulated

Kallxo's fact-checking unit Krypometer reported on 15 May 2026, ahead of Kosovo's 7 June early election, that a Facebook profile had published two videos involving Paris Guri, a former member of parliament for the Democratic League of Kosovo (LDK). The first showed members of the LDK Youth Forum, with Guri among them, holding bottles of milk. Krypometer says the HIVE detector gave a 97 per cent probability that it was edited with AI, and a Google Lens search found the original photo, published by Guri, in which the group raise two fingers, the LDK's symbol, instead. The second video purported to show Guri praising Albin Kurti and was shared with a Serbian-language caption calling him a beauty; Krypometer says HIVE results show the video and its speech were manipulated with AI. Guri told Krypometer the videos are manipulated. Who made them, which tool was used and how widely they spread are not reported.

Core concern Low reported severity Media Coverage

AI involvement reported · Causal attribution supported · 1 source · Added 28/10/2026

Event date unknownEvent location unknownUnidentified video tool

Taiwanese health educator says AI videos copying her face and voice ran in over 100 fake adverts; a fact-checker found one YouTube video AI-generated

A well-known Taiwanese health educator and former hospital toxicology nurse, who appears on television health programmes, told TVBS and PTS in October 2026 that her likeness and voice had for a long time been used without her consent in AI-synthesised videos promoting foods, cookware and cleaning products, most recently a red-date and yam cake sold through Facebook and YouTube adverts. She said she had learned of most of them from viewers or from Taiwan's Ministry of Digital Affairs, which had helped handle dozens of cases; counting her own reports the cases exceeded 100, and some people had still been deceived. She said some viewers who believed she endorsed the products berated her in comments, that the impersonation affected her daily life, and that she felt she had a trauma syndrome. In September 2026 she had told the Liberty Times that since mid-July she had been warning on Facebook about AI-generated videos using her photos and voice. The fact-checking site MyGoPen examined one such item, a 21 September YouTube video presented as her health advice, and found it came from an unofficial channel, that its voice and images were AI-generated, that the video page was labelled as AI-generated content and that the video page had since been suspended by YouTube; her verified Facebook account replied that the channel was a scam. The AI attribution of the product adverts themselves rests on her statements and the outlets' reports.

Core concern Low reported severity Media Coverage

AI involvement reported · Causal attribution supported · 4 sources · Added 27/10/2026

Oct 2026IndiaUnidentified video tool

India: Army says viral AI deepfake video falsely showed a lieutenant general saying China had taken parts of Arunachal Pradesh

In late October 2026 a video circulated on social media in which Lt Gen Girish Kalia, who commands the Indian Army's Spear Corps, appeared to say that China had taken control of areas of Arunachal Pradesh and that Indian forces lacked supplies. India TV reports that the Army called the video fake, said it had been made by editing an old video of the officer with the help of AI, and posted the original footage; India TV also reports that some opposition politicians had reposted the video and asked the government to respond. The fact-checker BOOM traced the footage to the officer's October 2023 media briefing in Kupwara about infiltration across the Line of Control, and reports that a deepfake voice detector rated the viral audio as likely a deepfake. Who made the video is not reported.

Core concern Low reported severity Media Coverage

AI involvement reported · Causal attribution supported · 2 sources · Added 27/10/2026

Event date unknownEvent location unknownUnidentified video tool

Fact-checkers say videos impersonating an Albanian cardiologist and a journalist to sell hypertension pills were likely AI-made; both men disowned them

A Facebook page in the name of the Albanian cardiologist Dr. Spiro Qirko published a video claiming he had discovered a cure for hypertension, and a second video presented as an interview of him by the journalist Ilir Topi, promoting a product called Hyper Caps. Kallxo's fact-checking unit Krypometer, in an article of 30 March 2026, reports that it ran the video through the AI-content detector Hive Moderation, which gave a 96.4% probability that the video and the speech were AI-generated, and that Hyper Caps is not on the Kosovo medicines agency's list of products authorised for marketing. Both men told Krypometer they had nothing to do with the page or the video. The journalist said it was AI-generated and fake, and the cardiologist said he felt deeply offended by the fraud and had never recommended herbal remedies for hypertension. Who made the videos, how widely they circulated and whether anyone bought the product are not reported.

Core concern Low reported severity Media Coverage

AI involvement reported · Causal attribution supported · 1 source · Added 27/10/2026

20 Oct 2026Event location unknownUnidentified video tool (suspected)

Texas: researchers say very likely AI deepfake videos impersonating a real former student falsely accused Senate candidate James Talarico of abuse

On 20 October 2026, during early voting in Texas, a newly created X account posted two videos in which a man presented himself as a former student of James Talarico, the Democratic US Senate candidate and a former middle-school teacher, and accused him of sexual assault in 2012. The threat-intelligence firm Graphika said the account very likely impersonated a real Facebook user of the same name who had been Talarico's student and had praised him, assessed the videos as very likely deepfakes because the face moved unnaturally or out of sync with the audio and AI analysis tools indicated AI generation, and attributed them with high confidence to the Russia-aligned influence operation Storm-1516. PolitiFact reported that NewsGuard found many signs of AI generation and a 98 percent detector score, and that the real former student told the fact-checkers Lead Stories the video was not of him and denied accusing Talarico. Talarico's campaign said he was being slandered with AI deepfakes, foreign bots and conspiracy theories. PolitiFact rated the claim Pants on Fire. Who made the videos and how many people saw them is not established.

Core + contextual relations Medium reported severity Media Coverage

AI involvement suspected · Causal attribution supported · 2 sources · Added 25/10/2026

Sept 2026Event location unknownUnidentified image tool

Viral images of the US president kissing a White House aide: fact-checks found signs of AI generation, and a White House official called the image fake

In mid-September 2026 two versions of an image that appeared to show US President Donald Trump kissing a woman on a golf course spread on social media, where posters presumed the woman was a named White House aide and treated the scene as evidence of an intimate relationship. Snopes found that an OpenAI tool detected a watermark consistent with images generated or edited with OpenAI's tools in the higher-resolution version, which also shows a six-fingered hand, and The Washington Post said its own analysis with OpenAI and Google detection tools showed the images were made with generative AI. A White House official called the image clearly a fake photo. Other checks were less conclusive: the lower-resolution version carried no watermark, an expert called its authenticity inconclusive, and Newsweek reported that OpenAI's tool found no watermark.

Core concern Low reported severity Media Coverage

AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 4 sources · Added 22/10/2026

May 2026Event location unknownChatGPT and Claude (reported)

Author of The Future of Truth acknowledges synthetic and misattributed quotes linked to his AI research tools; two people quoted say the quotes are not theirs

Ars Technica reported on 22 May 2026 that a New York Times investigation that week found what Steven Rosenbaum acknowledged are "a handful of improperly attributed or synthetic quotes" in his book The Future of Truth: How AI Reshapes Reality, linked to his use of AI tools while researching it. Rosenbaum told Ars that ChatGPT and Claude were used heavily to gather information and that AI-sourced material was tagged in his notes and passed to a fact-checker and copy editors provided by the publisher. According to Ars, the Times identified six problematic citations among the book's 285 outside citations, including three synthetic quotes with no apparent source. Tech reporter Kara Swisher told the Times she never said a quote attributed to her, and professor Lisa Feldman Barrett said quotes attributed to Barrett do not appear in Barrett's book and are wrong. Rosenbaum said he was working with editors on a citation audit to correct future editions. WIRED later removed an excerpt from the book, saying it did not meet its editorial standards.

Core + contextual relations Low reported severity Media Coverage

AI involvement reported · Causal attribution supported · 2 sources · Added 18/10/2026

10 Oct 2026 to 15 Oct 2026Event location unknownUnidentified image tool

Swedish fact-checkers say a clickbait network spread false posts with AI-generated images claiming MP Mohamed Ali confessed to election fraud and was arrested

Between 10 and 15 October 2026 a Swedish-language Facebook page published twelve posts about Mohamed Abdukardir Ali, a Left Party (V) member of the Riksdag, including claims that he had confessed to election fraud and that police had detained him in the middle of a press conference. The fact-checking site Källkritikbyrån reported on 16 October that the claims are false and the images AI-generated, and linked the page through a shared administrator account to BeeUp, a Vietnamese firm that presents itself as a viral marketing agency. SVT Verifierar reported on 17 October that the images claim he confesses to election fraud and has been arrested, and that comment after comment on Facebook reacted with demands such as 'Utvisa honom!' (deport him). The posts built on real reports of suspected election irregularities connected with his personal-vote campaign in Borlänge, which he denies. No source names the image tool, describes how the images were identified as AI-generated, or reports his response to the fabricated posts.

Core concern Low reported severity Media Coverage

AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 3 sources, 2 underlying accounts · Added 18/10/2026

Aug 2025Event location unknownUnidentified video tool

Full Fact finds AI deepfakes of UK public-health academics made to promote menopause supplements on TikTok; depicted professors object

In a December 2025 investigation, the fact-checker Full Fact reported that social media accounts were using AI-generated deepfakes of real doctors and academics, made from real footage, to promote supplements, with many links to the US company Wellness Nest. Professor David Taylor-Robinson of the University of Liverpool learned on 11 August 2025 that TikTok carried footage of his real conference talk altered so that a fake version of him discussed a supposed menopause symptom and recommended a Wellness Nest probiotic; The Guardian reported 14 such videos. TikTok at first found no violation, and removed the account after Full Fact contacted it on 24 September, calling the delay a moderating error. He said he became more and more irritated, that removal was a faff and that people who know him could have been taken in. Full Fact also found eight videos of Duncan Selbie, former head of Public Health England, who called them a complete fake. Wellness Nest denied running the accounts or using AI-generated content. The tool used is not identified.

Core concern Low reported severity Internal Action

AI involvement reported · Causal attribution supported · 2 sources · Added 18/10/2026

7 Feb 2026ThailandUnidentified Google image tool (reported)

Thailand: AFP finds an AI-generated image of Prime Minister Anutin dining with a South African businessman spread on election eve; Anutin denied it

AFP Fact Check reported on 9 February 2026 that an image showing Thai Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul at a dinner table with South African businessman Benjamin Mauerberger and three women spread in a 7 February Facebook post, and in other Facebook and TikTok posts, on the eve of Thailand's 8 February general election, with captions suggesting the two men had long been in contact. A newsletter has accused Mauerberger of laundering money for scam networks, which he denies, and genuine photos of the two men leaked in December 2025 had already drawn questions from opposition lawmakers. AFP found visual irregularities and ran the image through Google's SynthID detector, which indicated with very high confidence that it was made with Google's AI tools. Anutin publicly denied the photo's authenticity on 7 February, saying it was an AI photo. Who made the image is not reported.

Core concern Low reported severity Media Coverage

AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 1 source · Added 18/10/2026

13 Oct 2026BangladeshUnidentified video tool

Bangladesh: fact-checker says face-swap AI put two actresses' faces on adult videos posted from a TV channel's Instagram account, which says it was hacked

On 13 October 2026 two videos depicting two Bangladeshi actresses in sexual content were posted on the official Instagram account of the private television channel Maasranga Television. The fact-checking organisation Rumor Scanner reported, as relayed by Prothom Alo and Dhaka Files, that the videos were not genuine and had been made by placing the actresses' faces onto other videos with face-swap technology; Dhaka Files adds that the source videos came from adult websites and describes the technology as AI. The channel said its account had been hacked and that fake images and videos made by misusing AI had been published; it announced that it had recovered the account with the help of BTRC, the CID and Banani police station, removed the videos, expressed regret and said it would take legal action. Dhaka Files reports the videos were viewed roughly 400,000 times before deletion and records doubts about the hack claim, because routine posts continued from the account during the period. On 15 October one of the actresses wrote on her Facebook page that creating and spreading fabricated content in someone's name with AI is a crime. Who made or posted the videos is not established in the sources.

Core concern Medium reported severity Media Coverage

AI involvement reported · Causal attribution supported · 2 sources · Added 16/10/2026

23 Jul 2026 to 31 Jul 2026IndiaUnidentified video tool

Delhi Police and fact-checkers say a viral video of a Delhi Police DCP resigning over student protests was AI-generated; FIR filed in Maharashtra

In late July 2026 a 44-to-47-second video circulated on social media in which Delhi Police Deputy Commissioner Sumit Jha appeared to announce that he was resigning "immediately" because the government had pressured him to implicate students protesting with the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) on false charges. The fact-checkers Alt News and BOOM traced the frames to a genuine Delhi Police video of 23 July in which the officer warned about Pakistan-based social media handles spreading misinformation. BOOM found a mismatch between the audio and his lip movements and said Deepfake O Meter tools flagged the clip as AI-generated. Alt News reported a 67% likelihood of AI generation from Detectvideo.AI. Delhi Police posted a fact check calling the video "completely fake and AI generated", and the Hindustan Times reports that the Press Information Bureau also said it was AI-generated. After a member of the BJP social media team saw the video in a post by a Congress leader on 31 July, Maharashtra Cyber Police registered an FIR against unknown persons for public mischief and cheating by personation. The officer is named because he is a senior public official depicted in his official role and the fact checks name him; no statement from him is reported.

Core concern Low reported severity Investigation Opened

AI involvement supported · Causal attribution supported · 4 sources · Added 11/10/2026

Sept 2026IndiaUnidentified voice-cloning tool

Phagwara, Punjab: after unrest at Lovely Professional University, a video of the local Superintendent of Police circulates with an AI-made voice saying a relative of the Union Home Minister was behind the violence; Punjab Police call it fake (CyberPeace dates a Kapurthala Police post to 29 September 2026) and a fact-checker finds the original footage

India TV reported on 30 September 2026 that, after violence at Lovely Professional University in Punjab, a video of Phagwara's Superintendent of Police went viral in which the officer's voice claims that a relative of the Union Home Minister was behind the violence and that a police team had gone to Delhi to find him. Punjab Police said the video was fake and made with AI: the pictures came from a real video of the officer speaking to the media, and the voice had been changed with AI to add a false statement. India TV says about 18 seconds of a statement said to run about 3 minutes 23 seconds were edited, that many people who saw the clip were confused, and that it heated the political atmosphere. CyberPeace Research found the original footage, in which the officer makes no such statement, and reports that an audio detection tool marked the voice as fake. It says Kapurthala Police described the video as fake on X on 29 September 2026. Who made the clip is not reported.

Core concern Low reported severity Media Coverage

AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 2 sources · Added 05/10/2026

Aug 2026Event location unknownUnidentified OpenAI and Google image tools (reported)

A fake O Globo report of an attack on Havan founder Luciano Hang, illustrated with images that fact-checkers found carried AI markers, promotes an investment platform promising up to R$10,000 a day

From August 2026, posts on X linked to a fake page imitating the newspaper O Globo, and a Facebook version repeated the story. The page reported an attack on businessman Luciano Hang, founder of the Havan stores, and directed readers to a supposed investment platform promising R$3,000 to R$10,000 a day. The fact-checkers Lupa and Comprova found that no attack happened. Lupa reports that an OpenAI verification tool found a watermark indicating OpenAI image generation in the montage on the page; Comprova reports that SynthID indicated that the images it analysed, showing Hang injured, were made with Google's AI tool. Hang said in a note that criminals use his image, including AI manipulations, to promote fake investments. São Paulo's regional electoral court ordered X to remove posts falsely linking candidate Fernando Haddad to the fake attack. No investor loss is reported.

Core concern Low reported severity Media Coverage

AI involvement reported · Causal attribution supported · 6 sources, 3 underlying accounts · Added 02/10/2026

Event date unknownEvent location unknownUnidentified video tool

Honduras: Criterio.hn's fact-check desk finds three Facebook videos altered with AI in which plastic surgeon Emec Cherenfant appears to promote a home remedy for prostatitis; he says scammers keep using his name and image

El Mirón, the verification section of Criterio.hn, reported on 30 September 2026 that it found three videos on a Facebook profile, altered in image and audio, that use the image of the plastic and reconstructive surgeon Emec Cherenfant to offer a remedy for prostatitis and related problems. In the videos his artificial image says he helped former footballers beat prostatitis without surgery and invites viewers to write to him on WhatsApp. El Mirón says the manipulation is evident from the vocabulary, voice and body movements and that the detector ZeroGPT flagged the videos as AI-made. The hospital where he offers his services told El Mirón the advertising is deceptive. Cherenfant said he has nothing to do with prostate treatment, that scammers repeatedly use his name and image, and that he filed a complaint with the Ministerio Público two years ago. 'Son estafadores. No se dejen engañar, es pura inteligencia artificial', he said. No buyer losses are reported.

Core concern Low reported severity Media Coverage

AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 1 source · Added 01/10/2026

Cases may have several effects and sources. Mixed accounts qualify when they include a reported harm or adverse experience. People are counted within individual cases where sources support a number; we do not publish a collection-wide total of distinct people.

A source’s existence, the experience it reports and AI’s causal role are separate questions. A lawsuit records allegations unless a subsequent finding establishes them.

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Last dataset update: 11/11/2026. Dataset available under CC BY 4.0.