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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
10
Countries with reported events
1
Located 10 of 10 cases · 0 unknown
Languages in checked sources
4
Recorded for 10 of 10 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.

No known event years in this selection.

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10 of 868 published cases

Event date unknownIndiaUnidentified image tool

Gorakhpur, Uttar Pradesh: woman's police complaint alleges a man made an AI obscene image from a photo he took of her, posted it on Facebook and blackmailed her

Dainik Bhaskar reports that police at Belipar station in Gorakhpur district, Uttar Pradesh, registered a first information report on the complaint of a married woman who alleges that a man she met over her sister's family dispute secretly photographed her, made the photo obscene with AI and posted it on Facebook. According to the complaint, he then used the image to blackmail her and pressure her to talk to him, verbally abused her when she objected, threatened to send the photo to her relatives, and on 30 September stopped her on the road and threatened to kill her. The station officer is quoted as saying the case is under investigation. The report rests on the complaint; the tool and the extent of the Facebook circulation are not described.

Core concern Medium reported severity Investigation Opened

AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 1 source · Added 11/10/2026

Event date unknownIndiaUnidentified image tool

Bahraich, Uttar Pradesh: brother's police complaint alleges two young men made AI obscene images of his sister from her phone photos to blackmail her

Three Hindi outlets report that police in Bahraich district, Uttar Pradesh, registered a case on a complaint by a man who alleges that two young men took photos from his sister's mobile phone, turned them into obscene images with AI and blackmailed her by threatening to spread them on social media, while repeatedly contacting her and causing her mental distress. She is described as a teenager (a minor, per Amar Ujala; Dainik Bhaskar describes her as a woman), and Amar Ujala says the photos were taken after she took her broken phone to a local shop for repair. The station officer is quoted as saying a first information report was registered and the case is under investigation. Bhaskar Digital notes that the allegations can only be confirmed by the police investigation. The images, the tool and any distribution beyond the threats are not described.

Core concern Medium reported severity Involving minors Investigation Opened

AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 3 sources · Added 11/10/2026

Event date unknownIndiaUnidentified image tool

Namakkal, India: man arrested over obscene images of his wife's two sisters that a Tamil daily says he made with AI and threatened to post, Oct 2026

In the Kumarapalayam area of Namakkal district, Tamil Nadu, India, a man was arrested on Saturday 10 October 2026 after his wife's elder and younger sisters and their family complained to the Tiruchengode all-women police station. According to the Tamil daily Daily Thanthi, he had secretly collected ordinary photographs of the two women, turned them into obscene images using AI technology and threatened to share them on social media. Police investigating with cyber-crime officers confirmed that the morphed images were on his devices and seized his laptop and mobile phones. The account rests on one newspaper report; the tool is not named and no statement from the accused is reported.

Core concern Medium reported severity Investigation Opened

AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 1 source · Added 11/10/2026

Event date unknownIndiaUnidentified image tool

Bareilly district, Uttar Pradesh: family says a youth posted an AI-made obscene picture of their minor daughter on Instagram and police did not act for a month

Dainik Bhaskar reported on 29 September 2026 that an AI-made obscene picture of a minor schoolgirl in Bareilly district, Uttar Pradesh, had been spread on social media. Her father said a young man from their village posted the picture on Instagram. The family alleges that police took no action for a month after their complaint on 28 August. According to the report, a quarrel broke out after the accused taunted the girl's mother; the family alleges that police then let him go, while action was taken against five people including the father, who was issued a breach-of-peace challan. The family complained to a state cabinet minister and the district police chief, after which the station in-charge said the case would be investigated and registered. The account is the family's, as relayed by one local report.

Core concern High reported severity Involving minors Investigation Opened

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

Event date unknownIndiaUnidentified image tool

Greater Noida: a woman and her niece complain to police that an unknown person used AI to turn their photos into obscene images and spread them online

Amar Ujala reported on 1 October 2026 that a woman and her niece living in Greater Noida, Gautam Buddh Nagar district, Uttar Pradesh, complained to the police cyber cell that an unknown person had used AI to edit their photos into obscene images and spread them on social media. The woman told the paper that a family member had posted the photos on social media a few days earlier. The complaint was made on Thursday, the day the report was published, and police said they were examining the links on social media and other digital evidence. No accused is identified. The account rests on the complaint as relayed by one local report.

Core concern Medium reported severity Investigation Opened

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

Event date unknownIndiaUnidentified image and video tool

Ambad, Jalna district, Maharashtra: a woman active in the Maratha reservation agitation complained to police that obscene photos and videos of her, which Pudhari and Divya Marathi report were made with AI, were posted on Facebook with rape and death threats after she publicly criticised the agitation's leader; Ambad police registered an FIR against five named profile holders and five to six others, reported on 2 October 2026

According to Pudhari and Divya Marathi (both 2 October 2026), a 35-year-old woman from Ambad who had been active in the Maratha reservation agitation publicly criticised the stance of its leader, Manoj Jarange Patil, in remarks to the media on 26 September. According to Pudhari's account of her complaint, some of his supporters then targeted her on social media: obscene photos and videos of her made with AI were posted on Facebook, and posts abused her in obscene language and threatened rape and death. Divya Marathi reports that her face was placed on obscene pictures and videos with AI deepfake technology and that the material spread on Facebook, WhatsApp and Telegram. She went to Ambad police station on 1 October with screenshots, saying she had been defamed and that she and her family were in danger. Police registered an FIR against five named profile holders and five to six others under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita and section 67 of the Information Technology Act. No arrest is reported.

Core concern Medium reported severity Investigation Opened

AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 2 sources, 1 underlying account · Added 05/10/2026

Event date unknownIndiaUnidentified image tool (suspected)

Satara, Maharashtra: supporters of Public Works minister Shivendrasinhraje Bhosale allege that the minister's photo was morphed with AI to link the minister to a dance event and spread on social media; police registered a case against four social media accounts in September 2026

Divya Marathi reported on 8 September 2026 that supporters of Public Works minister Shivendrasinhraje Bhosale alleged that the minister's photograph had been morphed using artificial intelligence and linked to a dance programme in Satara. According to the complaint, the photo was allegedly edited and circulated on social media from a YouTube channel, combining photographs from two different events and giving them a false context; supporters said this was done to defame the minister politically. Supporters, including the municipal council president and the BJP group leader, went to Satara city police station on Tuesday and complained against the YouTube channel. On a named complainant's first information report, police registered a case against four social media handles and account holders under sections 353(2), 356(2) and 3(5) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita and section 67 of the Information Technology Act. Police accepted the complaint and began examining the posts, the photographs and the circumstances; Divya Marathi says the facts will become clear only after an investigation of what alteration was made to the photograph with AI and who created and spread the posts.

Core concern Low reported severity Investigation Opened

AI involvement suspected · Causal attribution alleged · 1 source · Added 03/10/2026

Event date unknownIndiaUnidentified image and video tool

Neemuch, Madhya Pradesh: police register a case after a woman's family says a relative from Uttar Pradesh used AI to make obscene photos and videos of her and, over seven to eight months, extorted about ₹50 lakh from her with threats to circulate them and to kill her husband and children

Nai Dunia reported on 1 October 2026 that police in Neemuch City, Madhya Pradesh, had registered a case against a man from Shahjahanpur district, Uttar Pradesh, who is a relative of a local woman through her own family (the complainant husband's in-laws' side). According to the complaint filed by her husband, the man used AI to edit photos and videos of the woman into obscene, objectionable material, sent them to her phone and blackmailed her. When she resisted he threatened to kill her husband and two children, and he threatened to spread the material to shame her socially and within the family. Over about seven to eight months, the complaint says, he sent QR codes of 20 to 25 different people to her phone and extracted roughly ₹50 lakh in 50 to 60 payments, which she sent through a neighbour and other women. The man had lived in the family's home and worked at the husband's business for about six months two to two and a half years earlier, which the complainant says gave him knowledge of the family's income and property. Nai Dunia reported that police were investigating and trying to arrest the accused. The account is the complainant's as reported by one newspaper; the images were not inspected.

Core concern High reported severity Investigation Opened

AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 1 source · Added 02/10/2026

Event date unknownIndiaUnidentified image tool

Sonbhadra (Uttar Pradesh): police say a retired official was pressured into transferring about Rs 2.36 crore over one to one-and-a-half months by extortionists who posed as judicial and government officials and used AI-made fake nude images to threaten him; three arrested after a bank manager's alert (September 2026)

Sonbhadra police say a retired official in Uttar Pradesh transferred about Rs 2.36 crore into accounts named by extortionists, including money raised through a loan, before a State Bank of India manager noticed the repeated transfers on 22 September 2026 and alerted the cyber crime police station. At a press briefing on 25 September the superintendent of police said the fraudsters had frightened the man by invoking the higher judiciary and senior government officials (a so-called digital arrest) and had used AI to create fake obscene or nude images to blackmail him with threats of defamation and harm to his family (Times of India, Amar Ujala, ETV Bharat, Newstrack). Police froze about Rs 75 lakh, registered an FIR and arrested three people, including the alleged organiser; the outlets relay one police account, and they describe the AI element differently (images of the victim, or images sent to him during a WhatsApp chat with someone posing as a woman).

Core concern High reported severity Investigation Opened

AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 4 sources, 1 underlying account · Added 27/09/2026

Event date unknownIndiaUnidentified image tool

Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh: a young woman reported that an unknown person made AI deepfake images placing her face on another man's photo and sent them to her future in-laws' Instagram accounts to break off her marriage; police registered a case against unknown persons

Dainik Bhaskar reported on 19 September 2026 that a young woman in the Chaubepur police-station area of Varanasi complained that an unknown person, who had been calling her repeatedly from an unknown number, created a fake Instagram profile resembling her name, used an AI tool to place her face on another young man's photograph to produce objectionable images, and sent them to the Instagram accounts of her prospective in-laws and her prospective brother-in-law with the aim of breaking off her prospective marriage. Chaubepur police registered a case against unknown persons on the basis of a public-hearing reference (1621/26); the station in-charge said digital information about the phone number and the fake account was being gathered with cyber experts to identify and locate the accused, and that action would follow once the accused's role was clear. The report is a single local account of the complaint; the dates of the images and the complaint are not stated.

Core concern Medium reported severity Investigation Opened

AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 1 source · Added 20/09/2026

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.