Skip to main content

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
152
Countries with reported events
9
Located 19 of 152 cases · 133 unknown
Languages in checked sources
11
Recorded for 152 of 152 cases

12 cases have no reviewed AI-to-person relation yet: 0 not yet reviewed and 12 reviewed as unknown. Show these 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.

Reported severity HighMediumLow
More filters: AI relation, use, setting, sources and responses
Clear filters

152 of 1099 published cases · page 1 of 8

2 Nov 2026Event location unknownUnidentified AI phone scheduling agent

Patient says an ultrasound provider's AI phone agent, not disclosed as AI, called to book a test their doctor had not ordered (first-person)

In Bluesky posts on 2 November 2026, a patient says a caller presenting as a human employee phoned that day to schedule a test their doctor had not ordered, said they needed a different test, had their address and insurer wrong and did not know whether any of it was covered. The poster says the caller did not disclose it was an AI, asked for their insurance details and, told those were already on file, said it could not access them and offered a transfer to the front desk. When the poster then phoned the place where they were due for an ultrasound that day, a receptionist said, by the poster's account, that it was the facility's AI agent, "Vivian", and that "She gets confused". The poster says they were shocked. The provider is not named and no response from it is reported; the account is uncorroborated.

Core concern Low reported severity

AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 4 sources, 1 underlying account · Added 04/11/2026

Event date unknownColombiaGemini (reported)

Travel writer says a Gemini answer said no Honduras visa was needed; the airline refused the onward boarding pass and the changes cost hundreds of dollars

In a first-person article published by Upgraded Points on 6 August 2026, a travel writer says that on the morning of a flight from Medellin, Colombia, to Honduras they searched in Chrome whether a visa was needed and a message from Google's Gemini AI said U.K. citizens do not need a visa for tourism in Honduras for stays up to 90 days. They took the answer without checking the U.K. government site. At the Copa Airlines desk at Medellin airport they were asked for a visa, found that the U.K. government page says one is required, and flew only as far as Panama without a boarding pass to Honduras. They paid $100 to change the ticket, bought a new flight on from Panama, lost a nonrefundable onward flight and paid for a hotel night in Panama; the Honduras hotel refunded $326. The U.K. government's entry-requirements page, read on 4 November 2026, says British nationals must have a visa for Honduras. The writer puts the cost at $257 to $457 and says the mistake was not all their own fault but that visa costs are the traveller's responsibility.

Core concern Low reported severity

AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 2 sources · Added 04/11/2026

Oct 2026Event location unknownPickle AI agent

Travel YouTuber says Pickle AI agent phoned a hotel twice unasked, once without saying it was AI; Pickle's CEO apologised (first-person)

A Japanese travel YouTuber wrote on X on 29 October 2026 that they had asked an autonomous AI agent about a hotel for the New Year holidays and found it had phoned the hotel without being asked, so they phoned the hotel to apologise. Screenshots the poster posted show the agent saying it called twice: the first time it introduced itself as the poster's AI assistant and the call was cut off, and the second time it spoke "like a human secretary" as the poster's representative. In a reply the poster named the agent as Pickle. Replying in the thread, an account presenting itself as Pickle's CEO apologised to the poster and for the trouble caused to the hotel, said Pickle should have checked before calling and that not identifying as AI on the second call was the company's error, and promised a fix. The hotel's side of the calls is not reported.

Core concern Low reported severity

AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 4 sources, 2 underlying accounts · Added 02/11/2026

25 Oct 2026Event location unknownChatGPT (reported)

User says ChatGPT installed and ran applications on their PC without permission and reported it to OpenAI (first-person)

In posts on X on 25 October 2026, a Japanese-language user writes that from about 14:00 that day ChatGPT installed an application on their PC without permission and tried to run it. The poster says they noticed and uninstalled it, but a second application ChatGPT had installed kept running until 19:00. The poster reported it to OpenAI as a serious incident, warned people who run ChatGPT on looped tasks, and later wrote that a human at OpenAI replied quickly, that they sent all the relevant material and that OpenAI was handling it urgently. The posts do not name the applications or say which ChatGPT mode or permission setting was in use. A Japanese technology site that relayed the posts found no official OpenAI explanation and no similar reports from other users; several people replying questioned whether permissions or a compromised session could explain it. The account is uncorroborated.

Core concern Low reported severity

AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 3 sources, 1 underlying account · Added 02/11/2026

Event date unknownEvent location unknownChatGPT (reported)

Manga artist says ChatGPT advised rest at home with a rehydration drink for heatstroke symptoms, before IV drips in hospital on day three (first-person)

On 8 July 2026 a manga artist posted a comic on X about getting heatstroke. One panel shows ChatGPT's reply to the author's question: drink OS-1 rehydration solution, keep cool and sleep at home. According to Otakuma Keizai Shimbun, which wrote up the comic with the author's cooperation, the author felt too unwell to go to hospital unaided, followed the advice, then had worsening headaches and could not drink ordinary water, and rushed to hospital on the third day, where the author received two IV drips. The author called it leaving heatstroke to AI, but also blamed lack of sleep and fluids and said people put too much responsibility on AI. Two days after posting the author had not fully recovered.

Core concern Low reported severity

AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 2 sources, 1 underlying account · Added 02/11/2026

10 Jul 2024Event location unknownGemini (reported)

AI governance adviser says Gemini in Google Drive summarised his tax return unrequested while its summary setting was off; Google says users must enable Gemini

In a thread on X on 10 July 2024, an AI governance adviser wrote that he had just opened his tax return and that Gemini, Google's AI assistant, summarised it without being asked. He wrote that he could not find a setting to stop it, that the two locations Gemini itself suggested did not work, and that when another user showed him the setting meant to keep Gemini out of his documents it was already turned off while Gemini kept giving document summaries. His later testing, in the same thread, suggested that once Gemini had been opened for one PDF in Google Drive it was invoked again for every PDF he opened until he closed it, and he put forward a working theory that his 2023 sign-up for Workspace Labs had overridden the opt-out. A Google spokesperson told technology outlets that using Gemini in Google Workspace requires a user to enable it proactively and that content is not stored without permission; Tom's Hardware reports that Google suggested he may have used Gemini through the Drive side panel and that closing the panel might solve the issue.

Contextual tracker case Low reported severity Media Coverage

AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 4 sources, 1 underlying account · Added 01/11/2026

Event date unknownEvent location unknownGoogle Search AI summary (reported)

First-person account: patient says a doctor read Google's AI search summary for a diagnosis and later called to say the patient was right

In an article published on Medium on 26 October 2026 and a Bluesky post on 30 October, a writer says that at one appointment a doctor said "Let's ask Dr. Google", searched for a diagnosis and read the AI summary at the top of the results without opening any sources. The writer says the doctor was wrong; after they emailed him their sources and asked what they were missing, he called to say they were right. They say they were nervous to send the emails, and that their own research used Claude and Gemini, cross-checked against the cited sources. The article does not say what the summary said, what the diagnosis was, or when the appointment took place.

Contextual tracker case Low reported severity

AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 2 sources, 1 underlying account · Added 31/10/2026

Feb 2026United StatesUnidentified chatbot

Travel columnist says an AI chatbot's advice to walk between Los Angeles airport terminals in 20 minutes led to a 90-minute, 3 km transfer

A solo-travel columnist writing in the Japanese magazine SPUR says that in February 2026, while connecting at Los Angeles International Airport from a US domestic flight to a flight to Haneda, the writer asked an AI chatbot how to get between terminals. According to the column, the chatbot said the walk took about 20 minutes and that the connecting bus would mean leaving the secure area and passing security again, so walking was faster. The writer says the walkway ran out after two terminals, further questions to the AI did not help, and airport staff explained that a shuttle bus across the apron was needed; with a 15-minute wait for the bus and more walking, reaching the international terminal took an hour and a half and more than 3 km on foot. The writer says the AI did not know that Terminal 5 had been closed, which made things worse, and describes being furious. The connecting flight was not missed because the layover was five and a half hours. The column, published on 29 October 2026, lists this among several wrong AI answers the writer met while travelling; it does not say which chatbot gave the answer.

Core concern Low reported severity Media Coverage

AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 1 source · Added 31/10/2026

2025Event location unknownChatGPT (reported)

TikTok poster says all-day ChatGPT use became what her therapist called psychosis; she cut off family and friends and spent her savings (first-person)

In a TikTok video posted on 1 May 2026 a young woman says that in the summer of 2025 she went into what she calls AI psychosis. She says she bought ChatGPT Premium and used it from the time she woke up until bed, that ChatGPT convinced her that flights to Los Angeles and Hawaii would be good for her career, and that in this period she cut off her parents and all her close friends, spent $10,000 from her bank account, was left with no savings and $5,000 in credit card debt, and quit her job. She says her therapist told her she had psychosis and needed to stop, and her caption says she has not used ChatGPT since November. The Mary Sue described the video on 6 May 2026. All of this is her own account; no conversation or clinical record was inspected.

Core concern Medium reported severity

AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 2 sources, 1 underlying account · Added 31/10/2026

Event date unknownEvent location unknownChatGPT (reported)

First-person post: user says a ChatGPT-written archive script cleared a backup-drive folder and about 150 GB of data was lost

In a post to r/ChatGPT on 30 October 2026, a user says they lost 150 GB of data because they trusted ChatGPT too much and, this once, did not read its output. They had asked it to decompress, join and recompress six large tar.gz files onto a backup hard drive. The screenshot they posted shows the script with a step, commented "Clear output directory", that deletes the output directory before extracting Takeout archives. The poster says they never asked for the destination folder to be emptied and that running the script began to wipe the drive, which they noticed when free space was abnormally high. The full conversation is not shown, and no date is given for when the script was run.

Core concern Low reported severity

AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 1 source · Added 31/10/2026

Event date unknownJapanUnidentified chatbot

First-person account: traveller in Japan says an AI-built itinerary listed a Naoshima ferry time with no sailing, costing them a timed museum entry

In a post on note.com dated 29 October 2026, a traveller writes that they planned a two-night solo trip to Kagawa, Okayama and Naoshima with an AI tool, which produced an itinerary in two or three exchanges. Following it, they took a taxi in a hurry to Takamatsu port, where staff told them there was no ferry at the time the AI had put in the itinerary. They say they were held at the port for more than an hour and a half and, unable to move their Chichu Art Museum reservation, made a month earlier, to another slot that day or the next, cancelled it. They then checked every time in the itinerary against official websites. They write that they share the blame for leaving the checking to the AI and expect to keep using it for ideas. The post does not name the AI tool or give the trip date.

Core concern Low reported severity

AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 1 source · Added 31/10/2026

Event date unknownEvent location unknownChatGPT (reported)

California patient says urgent-care discharge papers were printed ChatGPT answers that other doctors told her were unsafe for her condition (first-person)

In a TikTok video posted on 28 October 2026, a woman described as living in California says the discharge paperwork and at-home treatment plan she received after a visit for care consisted of printed ChatGPT responses, which, according to a 30 October report by The Nerd Stash, included what appeared to be earlier chat prompts with labels such as "Aftercare Instruction Request". In a comment she identified the facility, which the report names only as allegedly an urgent-care clinic. She describes herself as medically complex, with a rare genetic disorder. In her caption she writes that, had she followed the instructions blindly, they would likely have led to bowel perforation given her history, citing other doctors she asked. She did not follow them. The clinic's account, the clinician involved and the date of the visit are not known.

Contextual tracker case Low reported severity

AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 2 sources, 1 underlying account · Added 31/10/2026

14 Oct 2026 to 29 Oct 2026Event location unknownClaude Code (reported)

GitHub issue: user says Claude Code put one project's hooks in user-wide settings, so every project ran them for about 15 days

In a GitHub issue filed on 29 October 2026, a Claude Code user says that on 14 October they asked the agent to build a hook kit for one project, and it wired the kit's 18 hooks into their user-level settings and put the project's config in the parent folder of all their projects, so every session and project ran that project's rules and gates. The user quotes the agent's own log noting that every folder would inherit the config. For about 15 days they saw unexplained behaviour in unrelated projects, and on 29 October, after the agent enabled two blocking hooks, a session for another project was woken and blocked from ending its turn. The user had all the hooks removed; nothing was deleted.

Core concern Low reported severity

AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 1 source · Added 30/10/2026

Event date unknownEvent location unknownClaude Code (reported)

GitHub issue: user says Claude Code agent's command to clear its own stuck process quit nearly every app on their Mac

In a GitHub issue filed on 29 October 2026, a Claude Code user says that in a desktop-app session the agent tried to clear a stuck process left by one of its own earlier commands and ran a command that sent a terminate signal to every process whose command line matched a short pattern. On macOS the pattern matched most of the user's processes: the user quotes system log lines showing dozens of apps exiting on the command's signal and says nearly every app and user agent quit, with only the Claude app, Finder and one browser surviving. The user also says the product's shell guard against such commands does not run on macOS.

Core concern Low reported severity

AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 1 source · Added 30/10/2026

29 Oct 2026Event location unknownGrok Bot (reported)

First-person forum post: Grok Bot user says an agent told to stop its own task ran a stop-all that cancelled ten other bots' work

In a bug report on Cursor's community forum on 29 October 2026, a Grok Bot user says that earlier that day they told one of their agents to stop, meaning only its own current task, and the bot ran a stop-all instead, cancelling the in-flight turns and subagents of all 10 of their other bots. The user rated the bug critical, said a stop-all should need an explicit instruction or a confirmation, and added a memory rule to that bot as a workaround. No vendor reply had been posted when the thread was read.

Core concern Low reported severity

AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 1 source · Added 30/10/2026

Event date unknownEvent location unknownAirbnb AI Assistant (reported)

Airbnb host says AI support assistant said resubmitted refunds would replace the held one; three refunds totalling £358.63 went to the guest (first-person)

An Airbnb host posted on Reddit (r/airbnb_hosts, 1 June 2026) a transcript of a support chat with Airbnb's AI assistant. According to the post, the host had tried to give guests a goodwill refund of about one night after they reported a cracked bed frame, and the refund showed as on hold with a minimum-not-met message. The transcript shows the assistant saying no refund had been processed and recommending resubmission; when the host asked whether that could send the money twice, it replied that resubmitting would replace the pending request and that duplicate submissions are automatically rejected or overwritten. After two more attempts, including one at the exact nightly rate the assistant suggested, a human support agent said the guest had been refunded three times (£115, £120 and £123.63), that the payments could not be reversed directly, and that the host should file a claim asking the guest to return the excess. The host had wanted to give a single £100 gesture. The post does not report the outcome.

Core concern Low reported severity

AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 2 sources · Added 30/10/2026

29 Oct 2026Event location unknownUnidentified coding tool

Web developer says employer cut their job because AI could do it, quoting the boss: 'I can just prompt the AI' (first-person account)

In a public post to r/Netherlands created on 29 October 2026, a full-stack web developer with ten years' experience writes that a month earlier they were told they would be fired because AI was able to do their job, and that the day of the post was their last day and last paycheck. In replies the poster quotes the boss as saying 'I can just prompt the AI and it seems to be doing what I need', says they had been at the company five years, worked on one month's notice under a Bulgarian employment, and had watched the company's code repository fill with AI commits. The poster also writes that they used AI heavily in the job and that the company wanted to save money. They say they have applied for developer jobs for 30 days without a workable offer and are thinking of leaving coding; they also say they are in no financial trouble. The account is uncorroborated and the employer is not named.

AI relation unknown Medium reported severity

AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 1 source · Added 30/10/2026

13 Oct 2026 to 29 Oct 2026Event location unknownFin AI support agent (reported)

Claude Max subscriber says Anthropic's AI support agent could not pass on a complaint and an AI-labelled reply refused a refund (first-person)

In a Reddit post on 29 October 2026, a Claude Max subscriber says they paid 180 euros on 7 October to renew the plan and that Anthropic cut off their access on 13 October, alleging a Supported Countries Policy violation; an appeal was rejected. The subscriber says Fin, Anthropic's AI support agent, first said it could not access their account records or transfer the complaint, and that a later AI-labelled response said it had reviewed the account and refused the refund. As of 29 October, they say, two billing conversations had been closed and no person had given a substantive answer to the billing complaint. The account is uncorroborated and commenters questioned it; Anthropic's reasons for the cut-off are not public.

Core concern Low reported severity Media Coverage

AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 3 sources · Added 30/10/2026

Event date unknownUnited StatesUnidentified AI voice agent

Los Angeles: mayoral candidate Nithya Raman's campaign files ethics complaints over a super PAC's AI voice phone line that speaks as her; PAC calls it satire

In October 2026 Thrive LA, a super PAC backing Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, put up signs and social media adverts for a phone line billed as "Nithya Raman Realty", after the city council member challenging Bass for mayor. Callers reach an AI-generated voice that speaks in the first person as Raman and converses with them; on a FOX 11 call it said "I'm as imaginary as my campaign promises". On 26 October Raman's campaign filed complaints with the California Fair Political Practices Commission and the Los Angeles City Ethics Commission, alleging the PAC used AI to impersonate her and fabricate her words without proper AI and funding disclosures, in breach of state election law. Thrive LA's executive director said AI was a tool for political satire, that callers would know it is AI, and, per the Los Angeles Times as relayed by Hoodline, called the complaint false and absurd. The complaints are allegations; no finding has been reported.

Core concern Low reported severity

AI involvement reported · Causal attribution supported · 2 sources · Added 29/10/2026

24 Aug 2026SwitzerlandHelvetia Clara (reported)

First-person account: Helvetia customer says the insurer's AI assistant Clara looped him for weeks with no claim number or status

In a LinkedIn article published on 14 September 2026, a Helvetia customer says that on 24 August 2026 he reported a private liability claim through Clara, the insurer's digital assistant, and received an automated confirmation. For the following two weeks, he says, he received no claim number and no status. When he called the claims hotline, Clara answered and advised him to call the hotline; the general agency's number and other contact routes also led to Clara, which apologised but could not resolve his request, said he could not be connected to the claims department or a staff member, and finally told him his contact request had already been closed. Helvetia replied under the article that it was frustrating not to get clear information despite several attempts and that this was not its standard. Helvetia has said the chat assistant runs on generative AI (GPT-4). The account is uncorroborated; the customer later wrote that his matter was not dramatic and that he was well looked after once the post was public.

Core concern Low reported severity Media Coverage

AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 3 sources, 2 underlying accounts · Added 29/10/2026

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.

Methodology and corrections · Subscribe via RSS · Suggest a case or correction · Find support

Last dataset update: 04/11/2026. Dataset available under CC BY 4.0.