Oct 2026Event location unknownPickle AI agent
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)
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)
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
Feb 2026United StatesUnidentified chatbot
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
Event date unknownJapanUnidentified chatbot
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
Jun 2025Malaysia, JapanUnidentified video tool
Taiwan's Taichung District Prosecutors Office said in January 2026 that it had indicted members of a fraud ring that operated from a base in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, from 2025. According to the prosecutors' account relayed by Minbao and the Liberty Times, members phoned people in Japan at random, said their phone bills were unpaid and that they had to cooperate with a police and prosecutors' investigation, and when a victim asked to verify this by video call, a member used AI deepfake face-swapping to appear as a Japanese police officer. Prosecutors said the scripts were written with ChatGPT, that eight Japanese victims were deceived into transferring money totalling about 18.65 million yen, and that the defendants had not compensated them. Malaysian police raided the base in August 2025 and seized Japanese police uniforms and forged badges. Japanese reporting relayed by PlusWeb3 in February 2026 describes the group's real-time deepfake replacing a uniformed caller's face with the photo on a fake police ID, and a Tokyo man in his 70s who lost 5 million yen in such a video call. No verdict is reported in the sources read.
Core concern Medium reported severity Criminal Charges
AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 3 sources, 2 underlying accounts · Added 28/10/2026
13 Sept 2026JapanUnidentified website-generation tool
Shiga prefectural police sent two teenagers' cases to prosecutors on 27 October 2026 on suspicion of violating Japan's unauthorised computer access law. According to the police announcement as reported by the Yomiuri Shimbun and Asahi Broadcasting (ABC), on 13 September 2026 the two, in Tokyo, sent two women the URL of a site made to look like a real payment service, told them they could receive money, and had them enter details such as email addresses and phone numbers. Police say the two used generative AI to make the phishing site, and the Yomiuri reports that one of them, who is believed to have used generative AI to make the fake site, said he did not have the skill to build a site without AI. The same day, police say, they logged into a travel-booking site with one woman's details and paid a Tokyo hotel bill of 182,830 yen; they were later re-arrested over three portable game consoles bought with another woman's account. Police believe they took about 50 people's information, including from other payment services, and charged about 5 million yen. Both admitted the allegations, according to the police. They are not named here.
Core concern Medium reported severity Criminal Charges
AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 2 sources, 1 underlying account · Added 28/10/2026
Event date unknownEvent location unknownChatGPT (reported)
In a question posted on the Japanese Q&A site Yahoo! Chiebukuro on 26 May 2026, the author says that when they asked ChatGPT for sweets that someone with a nut allergy could eat, it suggested sweets that plainly contained walnuts, and that when they asked for a gift that could be carried for a long time at room temperature, it said the item was "definitely fine at room temperature", but at the shop it turned out to need refrigeration. The author says these repeated failures wasted their time and money and writes that, with the allergy, it was in the worst case one step from death; the post does not say whether anyone ate the suggested sweets or had a reaction. The author asks how to stop the chatbot from answering without a basis. The account is the author's; no conversation record is shown.
Core concern Low reported severity
AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 1 source · Added 27/10/2026
Event date unknownEvent location unknownUnidentified chatbot
Panasonic Operational Excellence, a Panasonic Holdings subsidiary, announced on 23 October 2026 that a member of an in-house project introducing a personnel information system had uploaded part of that system's data, as registered in April 2026, to an external generative AI service whose use the company prohibits. According to the announcement as reported by ITmedia and CNET Japan, the data covered about 75,000 current and about 178,000 former employees of Panasonic group companies in Japan (employee numbers, addresses, phone numbers and email addresses, without names) and about 81,000 family members registered as emergency contacts (names, addresses, phone numbers and email addresses), about 334,000 people in all. The company says the upload broke internal rules and was not an outside attack, that the employee deleted the chat history and the local data immediately after the problem came to light, and that it reported the matter to Japan's Personal Information Protection Commission on 29 September. The provider told the company that training on the data was switched off at upload but that deleted data is kept for 30 days, until 25 October. No public exposure or misuse had been confirmed. The company has not named the AI service.
Contextual tracker case Medium reported severity
AI involvement reported · Causal attribution supported · 3 sources, 1 underlying account · Added 24/10/2026
Event date unknownJapanUnidentified image tool
On 12 August 2026 the Kanagawa Prefectural Board of Education in Japan announced disciplinary action against four staff of prefectural schools. According to Fuji TV (FNN) and the Kanagawa Shimbun, one male high-school teacher was suspended for six months for making swimsuit images of a female colleague with generative AI and leaving them where students could view them. FNN reports that he made the images on a smartphone using an account issued by the school, did not know how to delete them, and that students are believed to have seen them in the account history on a shared computer. The teacher said he had a technical interest in sexual content. FNN reports that it was the first disciplinary case in the prefecture involving generative AI; the principal was reprimanded for supervisory responsibility. The colleague's own response is not reported, and the AI tool is not named.
Core concern Medium reported severity Regulatory Action
AI involvement reported · Causal attribution supported · 2 sources, 1 underlying account · Added 23/10/2026
2020Hong Kong SAR ChinaUnidentified voice-cloning tool
According to a court document reported by Forbes, in which the United Arab Emirates sought US investigators' help, fraudsters used 'deep voice' technology to clone the voice of a company director. In early 2020 a branch manager of a Japanese company in Hong Kong received a call from a man whose voice he recognised as the director of the parent business, who said an acquisition needed transfers of about $35 million; emails from the supposed director and a lawyer confirmed the details, and the manager began making the transfers. Forbes reports that as much as $35 million was stolen. The UAE, whose Dubai Public Prosecution Office led the investigation, believes at least 17 people were involved and asked for help tracing $400,000 sent to US accounts. No arrests or recovery are reported.
Core concern High reported severity Investigation Opened
AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 2 sources, 1 underlying account · Added 22/10/2026
2023JapanUnidentified image tool
The Tokyo Metropolitan Police arrested a 31-year-old unemployed man on 19 January 2026 on suspicion of displaying obscene electronic records, for posting on member sites obscene images made with image-generation AI to resemble female celebrities, the Yomiuri Shimbun reported. Police believe that since summer 2023 he posted more than 500,000 sexual deepfakes using images of about 300 actresses and idols and earned about 11 million yen in viewing fees. According to investigative sources, the charge covers a dozen or so obscene images resembling female celebrities posted on two member sites between December 2024 and May 2025. Police say he trained a freely available image-generation AI on the women's images, advertised with sample images on X and Instagram, and took requests from higher-paying members for which celebrity to depict.
Core concern Medium reported severity Criminal Charges
AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 1 source · Added 22/10/2026
Oct 2024JapanUnidentified image tool
The Tokyo Metropolitan Police announced on 16 October 2025 that they had arrested a 31-year-old company employee on suspicion of displaying obscene electronic records, for posting on social media obscene images made with image-generation AI to resemble female celebrities. According to the police, from October 2024 he posted about 20,000 AI-made sexual images resembling 262 actresses, idols and announcers and earned about 1.2 million yen in viewing fees; the charge covers three images resembling three actresses posted between January and June 2025. Police say he trained a freely available image-generation AI on the women's images, let higher-paying viewers name the celebrity to be depicted, and admitted the charge. The police described it as the first arrest over AI-made obscene images resembling celebrities.
Core concern Medium reported severity Criminal Charges
AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 2 sources, 1 underlying account · Added 22/10/2026
11 Feb 2026Event location unknownUnidentified image tool
Tokyo's Metropolitan Police Department arrested a 32-year-old company employee on 1 August 2026 and referred a 17-year-old high-school student to prosecutors, on suspicion of defamation and public display of child pornography. According to the police, on 11 February 2026 the two, acting together, used generative AI to turn a photo of a woman in her 40s, taken in her first year of junior high school in gym clothes, into two fake nude images, and posted them to a group on social media; the student had asked the man to make the edits. Police say the man is also suspected of posting similar edits of three women in their 20s, that neither suspect knew the women, and that about 3,800 obscene images and videos were found on his phone. The Yomiuri Shimbun, citing investigative sources, reports that police believe he made about 300 such images of women in athletics uniforms or gym clothes and posted about 100, about half at the student's request, and that he admitted the allegations.
Core concern Medium reported severity Criminal Charges
AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 2 sources · Added 21/10/2026
Mar 2026JapanUnidentified video tool (suspected)
The Yomiuri Shimbun reported on 19 March 2026 that in early March an applicant in a Tokyo IT company's online mid-career job interview used the name, career history and apparent face of a real engineer who heads a Tokyo software company. After the interviewer grew suspicious and contacted the engineer, the engineer viewed the interview video, said they thought their public photos and videos had been used to impersonate them with AI, and was frightened. Yomiuri had three companies and research bodies, including the deepfake-detection venture Nabras and Okta, examine the video; they judged it likely a deepfake, possibly made with generative AI, or almost certainly fake. Business Insider Japan separately interviewed the engineer and the chief technology officer of a domestic venture that held a 4 March interview with an applicant using the engineer's real name and appearance; the CTO described a very low-resolution picture with unnatural face movements but thought the voice was a real person's. Who the applicant was is not established.
Core concern Low reported severity Media Coverage
AI involvement suspected · Causal attribution alleged · 2 sources · Added 19/10/2026
27 May 2026JapanChatGPT (reported)
A Singaporean man and a Thai woman became unable to move in rain on a steep slope near Tenguhara, at about 2,400 metres on Yarigatake in the Northern Alps, and asked police for rescue shortly before 5:30 pm on 27 May 2026, according to SBC Shinetsu Broadcasting's report of the police account. They bivouacked in their tent and came down with police and rescue-association members on 28 May, fatigued but apparently uninjured. On 12 October 2026 Nikkei presented the rescue as a case of climbers who took an AI answer at face value; its post on X summarised the column as ChatGPT saying the climb was possible with light equipment. A Vietnamese report (An ninh Thu do, carried by Vietnam.vn) says the two asked ChatGPT about conditions before the trip and were reportedly told the trek could be done with light gear, although snow remained on the mountain. The exchange itself is not published, and the readable sources do not say who told Nikkei about the ChatGPT answer.
Core concern Low reported severity Media Coverage
AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 4 sources, 2 underlying accounts · Added 14/10/2026
Aug 2026Event location unknownUnidentified OpenAI generative AI service (reported)
Notices from RIZAP's client insurers say that on 20 August 2026 it emerged that a staff member of RIZAP, the company they contract for specific health guidance, had entered data containing members' personal information into an external generative AI service that RIZAP had not permitted for work. The National Civil Engineering and Construction National Health Insurance Association (Doken Kokuho) puts the whole data set at 19,996 people, 1,167 of them its own members, and says the service was not under a corporate contract and that the matter was found when the employee noticed the transmission and reported it. A local-government employees' mutual aid association counts 726 of its members across 14 branches, and the IHI group health insurance society 210, according to a security news site that reads these as subsets of the 19,996. The data included membership numbers, email addresses, names, dates of birth, sex, some addresses and phone numbers, the type of health guidance and, for members with them, high blood pressure, diabetes or dyslipidaemia. The IHI society's notice, as relayed, names OpenAI as the provider and says OpenAI answered on 1 September that the data had not been used for model training. RIZAP's release, as described in an ITmedia column, says no third party other than the service operator could have viewed the data. Doken Kokuho says RIZAP confirmed to it that no third party viewed or used the information through the service; whether the provider's staff could view it was still being checked when the mutual aid association and the IHI society published.
Contextual tracker case Medium reported severity
AI involvement reported · Causal attribution supported · 5 sources, 4 underlying accounts · Added 12/10/2026
Jun 2026JapanUnidentified video tool (suspected)
In June 2026 a woman in her thirties in Japan's Kansai region received a call from a man claiming to be an Aichi Prefectural Police officer, who said a cash card in her name was linked to a fraud ring and that she was a suspect. She was moved to a Zoom call where a second man, presented as a detective, showed a police notebook, questioned her and told her to search her home on camera for her My Number card. Suspecting fraud, she recorded the exchange and ended it after about an hour; she told reporters the pressure left her flustered and feeling like a culprit. The Osaka Prefectural Police published part of the recording in August, and an analysis it requested from Trend Micro found the detective's face was possibly a deepfake altered with AI (Yomiuri, Asahi, FNN, NHK). No loss is reported.
Core concern Low reported severity Media Coverage
AI involvement suspected · Causal attribution alleged · 4 sources, 1 underlying account · Added 11/10/2026
Jul 2026Event location unknownUnidentified video tool
Hirosaki police in Aomori Prefecture, Japan, announced on 8 October 2026 that a man in his 40s living in the prefecture had been defrauded of ¥720,000 through a video, generated with artificial intelligence, of a real celebrity recommending investment, as reported by the Too Nippo newspaper. According to the police account, in about mid-July he followed a TikTok investment advertisement that impersonated a celebrity into LINE and Signal groups, made an initial profit on recommended shares, and then, at the suggestion of a LINE account, installed an investment app and transferred ¥720,000 from a convenience-store ATM to a designated account. When the app bought shares beyond his holdings and demanded the shortfall, he asked an AI, which pointed out that it might be fraud, and he realised he had been deceived. The celebrity and the tool used to make the video are not named.
Core concern Medium reported severity
AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 2 sources, 1 underlying account · Added 11/10/2026
4 Nov 2025JapanUnidentified mushroom-identification tool
According to Wakayama city’s public-health division, as reported by MBS (Mainichi Broadcasting) on 21 November 2025 and relayed by HuffPost Japan on 9 September 2026, a man in his 70s living in Wakayama city gathered wild mushrooms resembling hiratake (oyster mushroom) and shiitake in the mountains of Shimokitayama village, Nara prefecture, on 3 November 2025. On 4 November he tried to ask a botanical garden and others whether the mushrooms were edible but could not reach anyone, so he photographed one with his own electronic device and ran an AI identification, which answered to the effect that it was shiitake or hiratake and edible. In response he grilled and ate it; about 30 minutes later he began vomiting and was briefly hospitalised, and he has since recovered. The prefectural natural history museum and the city’s public-health research institute examined the leftovers and identified them as the poisonous tsukiyotake (moonlight mushroom). The city warned that judging wild mushrooms by AI or by picture books alone is dangerous. HuffPost Japan reports that Japan’s agriculture ministry issued a warning on 4 September 2026 against deciding edibility from search results or AI answers. The AI tool is not identified in the reports and the man’s exact exchange with it is not reproduced.
Core concern Medium reported severity Media Coverage
AI involvement reported · Causal attribution supported · 2 sources, 1 underlying account · Added 08/10/2026