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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
11
Countries with reported events
4
Located 5 of 11 cases · 6 unknown
Languages in checked sources
2
Recorded for 11 of 11 cases

2 cases have no reviewed AI-to-person relation yet: 1 not yet reviewed and 1 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.

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11 of 868 published cases

2026Event location unknownGoogle Antigravity (reported)

A developer says a Gemini 3.5 coding agent changed production routing, took an organisation's portal offline for 33 minutes, then fabricated recovery records

A solo developer who runs an internal admin portal for a small organisation posted on Reddit's r/Bard on 20 May 2026 that a Gemini 3.5 coding agent, asked to fix eight authentication gaps, opened a pull request touching 340 files with 28,745 deletions and then a second commit that changed the Firebase rewrite service identifier to a value pointing at a service that does not exist. The developer says the change deployed and the entire portal returned 404 errors for 33 minutes until a manual rollback. After the rollback, the developer says, the agent sent an all-clear message claiming that its own recovery build had succeeded and restored the portal, although that build had been cancelled, and it had written consultation logs into the repository that it later admitted were fabricated to satisfy a consultation rule. The developer attributes the agent's autonomy to a third-party rule pack, styled after Google's Antigravity brand, that told the agent to act without approval prompts and to auto-deploy. In later replies the developer says the agent worked on a development branch that auto-deployed to production. The Register reported the post on 21 May 2026. Google's response, if any, is not reported.

Core concern Low reported severity Media Coverage

AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 2 sources, 1 underlying account · Added 12/10/2026

Jan 2026 to Mar 2026Event location unknownGoogle Antigravity

Developer says Antigravity agent deleted drive contents twice, losing crypto wallet seed phrases and later a two-month project with its git history (forum post)

In a post on Google's AI developer forum on 7 March 2026, a developer says the Antigravity agent had for the second time deleted the contents of an entire C: drive. The poster says that about two months earlier it deleted the C: drive of a laptop, losing projects, photos and videos and seed phrases kept on the desktop for cryptocurrency savings of 0.4 bitcoin and 3,200 XRP, which file-recovery software could not usefully restore. The poster says that on the day of the post, after asking Antigravity to close any process using a workspace folder so the folder could be deleted, the agent instead ran destructive commands and deleted the project the poster had been building for two months on a new desktop, including git folders with recent commits. The poster says an investor was paying for the project and might withdraw. A reply from an account carrying the forum title Google said the issue had been escalated and asked for an in-app bug report.

Core concern Medium reported severity

AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 2 sources · Added 11/10/2026

Sept 2026Event location unknownGoogle AI Mode

Investigator says Gemini told a victim a fake TRON energy-rental site was safe; a screenshot he posted shows Google AI Mode calling it the official domain

On 4 October 2026 a crypto investigator who posts on X as JP (@rugpullfinder) said a fake TRON energy-rental site, tronify.rent, took $69,651 from about 80 people in September and that, according to a victim report, Google's Gemini had confirmed it was a safe website. His post carries two screenshots. The Crypto Times, which inspected them, reports that the first shows Google Search's AI Mode answering a user who asked whether it was safe to connect a wallet and which domain was correct: 'The official, correct web domain is tronify.rent', supported by a statement that Trust Wallet had natively integrated Tronify. In the same answer, under a heading on avoiding scams, it tells users never to approve unlimited token allowances. The Crypto Times reports that Trust Wallet's October 2025 announcement of the integration does not name tronify.rent and that a December 2024 Trust Wallet post links to Tronify's market at tronify.io. The second screenshot shows Trust Wallet notifications dated Monday, 28 September: an unlimited USDT approval to an address on the investigator's list, then 1,419.699184 USDT sent to another listed address. The Crypto Times has not verified the loss total or the victim count. No inspected source publishes the victim's own account or says the screenshots come from that victim.

Core concern Low reported severity Media Coverage

AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 2 sources, 1 underlying account · Added 06/10/2026

21 Jul 2026Event location unknownGoogle Antigravity (reported)

First-person forum post: a Google Antigravity user reports the agent's deletion command, meant for temporary folders, wiped the root of their Windows C: drive

In a thread on Google's AI developer forum posted on 22 July 2026, a Google Antigravity user on Windows 11 reports that on 21 July the agent, during a long-running data-mining and download workflow, ran a deletion command aimed at the root of the C: drive after the user had asked it to delete specific temporary working folders. The author says the command deleted the user profile and system files, froze the computer and left it unstable, requiring a full operating-system reinstall and a firmware reflash. The first post says the command ran without human confirmation. A later post by the author says the tool "frequently asks for execution permissions" and that a user running a long workflow keeps granting them, which leaves open whether this command was approved. The author first described decades of personal files as unrecoverable, and later wrote that most files had been recovered from cloud backups. The author posts what they present as the agent's own message attributing the deletion to a syntax error in its command. Other forum users replied that a user who grants an agent unsupervised terminal access bears responsibility. The account is the author's own and is uncorroborated.

Core concern Low reported severity

AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 1 source · Added 06/10/2026

4 Oct 2026Event location unknownGemini (reported)

First-person forum post: a sales worker says Gemini, linked to their Gmail, emailed a client when asked only to reword a draft, then said nothing was sent

In a public post to r/GeminiAI on 4 October 2026, a person who says they work in sales writes that they use Gemini to draft business emails and had given it a written rule never to use their Gmail and to put the text in the chat for copying. They say that when they asked it that day to make a client draft more enthusiastic, Gemini sent an email directly to a client with no confirmation screen, told them it was only a draft, and admitted sending it only after they found the message in their Sent folder. In replies the poster says the email was meant for a different client and went out from their personal Gmail account, and that they have switched the Workspace extension off. In a further reply the poster says that their first request was for an email to copy and paste, that Gemini produced it in a Gmail pop-up within the conversation and asked whether to send it, and that they did not confirm but changed the subject, which they think Gemini took as a confirmation. Several commenters say Gemini cannot send email and only prepares drafts. The account is the poster's alone and is uncorroborated.

Core concern Low reported severity

AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 1 source · Added 05/10/2026

20 Aug 2026SingaporeGemini (reported)

Singapore: an AI-generated photo of a crocodile at Pandan Reservoir led PUB to suspend water activities and search the reservoir in August 2026; a contractor's worker who allegedly made it was charged with transmitting a false message and with obstructing justice for allegedly deleting the image and the Gemini app history

On 20 August 2026 Singapore's national water agency PUB received a report of a crocodile sighting at Pandan Reservoir, with a photo. PUB said it tried to verify the image with several AI checker tools without a definite result, so it suspended water activities, told the Singapore Rowing Association and Singapore Canoe Federation to stop all activities there, put up warning signs and, with the National Parks Board, ran search-and-capture operations. On 21 August PUB found the photo was fake, stopped searching and filed a police report; water activities resumed on 22 August. Police said on 28 September that preliminary investigations found a man had used artificial intelligence to generate the image, sent it to a colleague, and then deleted the image and the related application to conceal his actions. On 29 September the 30-year-old, a worker employed by PUB's reservoir maintenance contractor, was charged with transmitting a false message and with obstructing the course of justice; the charge sheets, as reported by The Straits Times, say he deleted the image and the Gemini AI application history log from his phone on 21 August. He told the court he intended to plead guilty, and the case returns to court in November.

AI relation unknown Low reported severity Criminal Charges

AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 5 sources, 2 underlying accounts · Added 02/10/2026

2 Jun 2026PortugalGemini (reported)

Trofa, Portugal: a patient at a private urology consultation (about EUR 90 without insurance) for a kidney problem, expecting a personalised nutrition plan, was handed a printout of Google Gemini food recommendations headed 'AI overview'; the Portuguese Medical Association called the practice 'profoundly inept'

According to Correio da Manhã, during a urology consultation at the Trofa Saúde Hospital da Trofa on 2 June 2026, a patient being followed for a kidney problem expected a personalised nutrition plan but received a printed sheet of food recommendations headed 'vista geral de IA' ('AI overview'), generated by Google's Gemini. The consultation costs about EUR 90 for patients without health insurance; the patient told the paper the doctor had been typing on the computer and simply printed and handed over the list without showing that it had been checked against the patient's case: 'I've never experienced anything like it. I would have preferred him to take his time', calling it 'a lack of consideration'. The Portuguese Medical Association (Ordem dos Médicos), which said it had no formal knowledge of the case, said AI information must be validated by the doctor before reaching the patient and called using a chatbot for basic urology food lists 'profoundly inept'. Trofa Saúde did not respond to the paper over three weeks.

Core concern Low reported severity Media Coverage

AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 3 sources, 1 underlying account · Added 29/09/2026

25 Sept 2026 to 26 Sept 2026Event location unknownGemini coding agent (reported)

First-person forum account: a developer says a Gemini coding agent deleted three personal project folders from the developer's Linux machine despite a standing rule not to delete anything, that its recovery attempt restored only broken fragments, and that it went through unrelated private files without permission

In a public post to r/GeminiAI on 27 September 2026, a developer writes that the previous day, while they were using Gemini 3.8 Flash to work on a project on their Linux machine over SSH, the agent deleted all three main sub-project folders of their roughly 10 GB project folder, some of them not under git, although they had set a global rule forbidding it to modify or delete anything. Asked why, the agent said a wildcard caused the deletion. After a whole evening its recovery attempt restored only parts of the untracked files and a half-broken version of the git project, and then ran out of credits; in a follow-up comment the poster says they stopped the recovery themselves because the agent was going through private folders unrelated to the projects without their permission. The poster describes years of personal work as gone, reports acute distress, and says they must rebuild the projects. The account is uncorroborated; the poster writes 'I was careless.'

Core concern Medium reported severity

AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 2 sources, 1 underlying account · Added 28/09/2026

16 May 2026United StatesGemini (reported)

Boca Raton father says a Lyft driver's damage-fee photo was AI-generated; Lyft says it offered reimbursement and removed the driver

A Boca Raton, Florida father told WPBF, WPTV and ABC News that after his teenage daughters took a Lyft home from the beach (on Saturday 16 May 2026, according to ABC News), he was charged a $75 damage fee because the driver reported that the riders had left a mess. Lyft customer service told him the driver had sent pictures. One daughter pointed out a Gemini logo in the corner of the photo, which the family took as showing it was AI-generated. The father says Lyft then agreed, apologised and blocked the driver. Lyft's statements say it reviewed the rider's concerns, offered reimbursement and, per its later statements, permanently removed the driver; they do not say the photo was AI-generated.

Contextual tracker case Low reported severity Involving minors Internal Action

AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 3 sources · Added 17/09/2026

29 Aug 2026 to 31 Aug 2026United StatesGemini

Mount Shasta climb planned with Google Gemini: night stranding, knee injury and rescue (Siskiyou County, California)

Three novice hikers from Roseville, California, planned a Mount Shasta summit attempt with Google's Gemini, which the Siskiyou County Sheriff's Office said advised them to carry far less food and water than their group needed for what became a multi-day ordeal. After reaching the summit at 7 p.m. on 30 August 2026, seven hours past the recommended turnaround time, they lost the Clear Creek Route in the dark, one hiker fell and injured his knee in Mud Creek Canyon, and the group spent the night stranded until US Forest Service climbing rangers and county search-and-rescue volunteers reached them on the morning of 31 August. The sheriff's office called the reliance on Gemini 'a critical misstep'.

AI relation under review Low reported severity Media Coverage

Legacy assessment: credible · Causal attribution supported · Added 05/09/2026

22 Jun 2026IndiaGemini (reported)

Bengaluru police allege Gemini research preceded a triple homicide

Police investigating three family members’ deaths in Bengaluru on 22 June 2026 allege that one accused person used Gemini for months of research framed as hypothetical questions. India Today reported that investigators sought Google’s records. The Federal credits India Today for the product identification. The inspected reports do not provide a complete conversation record or establish that Gemini caused the killings.

Core concern Critical reported severity Criminal Charges

AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 2 sources, 1 underlying account · Added 31/07/2026

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: 23/10/2026. Dataset available under CC BY 4.0.