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NOPE Incident Tracker

Documented cases where AI chatbots and companions are reported or alleged to have caused psychological harm or contributed to deaths — and the regulatory action that followed.

118 incidents reported since 2016

31

Lawsuits

23

Regulatory

43

Affecting Minors

Timeline

2020
2021
2022
2023
2024
2025
2026

10 of 118 incidents

Filters:
Severity: High
AI image-morphing / deepfake tools (unspecified) May 2026

Ahmedabad Woman AI-Morphed Image Harassment Campaign (India)

A Delhi man who befriended an Ahmedabad woman online under the pretext of spiritual discussions used AI tools to create more than 100 obscene morphed images and videos of her and her mother after she rejected his advances. He spread them across 8-10 fake social-media accounts for months while posing as a 'helpful friend' to the victim. Ahmedabad Cyber Crime Branch arrested him in May 2026.

Severity: Critical
AI image-manipulation / deepfake tools (unspecified) May 2026 Affecting Minor(s)

Bhopal Class 11 Student Suicide After AI-Image Blackmail (India)

A Class 11 student (around 16) in Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh died by suicide in May 2026 after being harassed, stalked, and blackmailed by two young men who used AI tools to create manipulated intimate images of her. Her family said she had never personally interacted with the accused and that the images were entirely AI-fabricated. Police registered an unnatural-death case and opened an investigation.

Severity: High
AI image/video-editing tools (unspecified) May 2026

Indore College Student AI-Image Blackmail and Attempted Suicide (India)

A first-year college student in Indore, Madhya Pradesh was blackmailed with AI-edited obscene images and video created from her photographs. The material was shown to her fiancé, breaking off her engagement, and she attempted suicide before family intervention. Police registered an FIR; the accused, Vishal Gurjar, remained a fugitive.

Severity: Critical
ChatGPT Mar 2026

Surat ChatGPT Double Suicide (Sirsath & Chaudhary)

Two college students in Surat, Gujarat, India — Roshni Sirsath (18) and Josna Chaudhary (20) — died by suicide on March 6, 2026 after using ChatGPT to search for suicide methods. Police found ChatGPT queries for 'how to commit suicide' and 'which drugs are used' on their phones.

Severity: High
AI image-morphing tools (unspecified) Feb 2026

Chennai AI-Morphed Image Harassment of Ex-Colleague (India)

A woman in Chennai was arrested in February 2026 for using AI tools to create obscene morphed images of a former senior colleague, setting up fake Instagram accounts in the victim's name and circulating the defamatory content to company employees to settle a personal grudge. Tamil Nadu's State Cyber Crime Investigation Centre traced and arrested her.

Severity: High
AI image-morphing / deepfake tools (unspecified) Jan 2026

Indore Engineer AI-NCII Revenge Campaign After Rejected Proposal (India)

A civil engineer in Indore, Madhya Pradesh was arrested in January 2026 for a roughly seven-month campaign in which he used AI tools to create obscene morphed images of a woman and her sister and mailed them to relatives and neighbours, in revenge after the woman's family rejected his marriage proposal. He had reportedly studied crime-evasion techniques from a TV crime show to avoid detection.

Severity: Critical
Grok Jan 2026 Affecting Minor(s)

Grok Industrial-Scale Non-Consensual Sexual Image Generation Including CSAM

Between December 25, 2025 and January 1, 2026, Grok generated approximately 6,700 explicit images per hour (85 times more than leading deepfake sites), with 2% depicting apparent minors. Users requested minors be depicted in sexual scenarios and Grok complied. Named victim Ashley St. Clair asked Grok to stop using her childhood photos (age 14); bot called content 'humorous' and continued. Triggered fastest coordinated global regulatory response in AI safety history: 5 countries acted within 2 weeks.

Severity: Critical
AI deepfake/nudify tools (unspecified) Nov 2025 Affecting Minor(s)

West Bengal Teen - AI Deepfake Image Suicide (India)

A teenage girl (class 10 student, approximately 15-16 years old) in Sonarpur, West Bengal, India, was found dead by hanging on November 28, 2025. A married man from her locality had used AI tools to generate nude images of her from photographs and circulated them on social media, after a period of blackmail and harassment.

Severity: Critical
AI deepfake/nudify tools (unspecified) Oct 2025

Rahul Bharti - AI Deepfake Sextortion Death (India)

Rahul Bharti, a 19-year-old college student in Faridabad, Haryana, India, died by suicide on October 25, 2025, after two weeks of blackmail involving AI-generated nude images of himself and his three sisters. Perpetrators demanded Rs 20,000 and taunted him to kill himself.

Severity: Critical
AI chatbot (undisclosed) Sep 2025

India Lucknow AI Chatbot Suicide (Painless Ways to Die)

A 22-year-old man in Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, India, died by suicide after seeking guidance from an AI chatbot on 'painless ways to die.' His father discovered disturbing chat logs on the deceased's laptop. Police registered a case under Sections 281, 324(4), and 106(1) of Bhartiya Nyay Sanhita 2023 for rash driving, causing mischief, and negligent act. If proven, this would be India's first formal instance of 'abetment to suicide through technology.'

About this tracker

We document incidents with verifiable primary sources: court filings, regulatory documents, and major news coverage. This is not speculation or social media claims. Every entry carries an explicit verification status and severity level — read the full methodology, including inclusion criteria, corrections, and right of reply.

Have documentation of an incident we should include? Contact us.

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Last updated: Jul 19, 2026

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Why we publish this

We maintain this record so platforms, researchers, and policymakers can learn from documented incidents. That includes platforms that never work with us. The full dataset is free to cite and export (CC BY 4.0).