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
98
Countries with reported events
23
Located 75 of 98 cases · 23 unknown
Languages in checked sources
21
Recorded for 98 of 98 cases

10 cases have no reviewed AI-to-person relation yet: 0 not yet reviewed and 10 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 CriticalHighMediumLow
More filters: AI relation, use, setting, sources and responses
Clear filters

98 of 1099 published cases · page 1 of 5

25 Sept 2025NetherlandsChatGPT (reported)

Dutch Council of State annuls master's student's thesis fraud sanction, finding an AI tool had garbled his own reference list

A master's student at the University of Groningen used an AI tool while preparing the reference list of his thesis. The examiner found many non-existent references, and on 25 September 2025 the Faculty of Economics and Business exam board declared all his work for the thesis course invalid for fraud, excluded him from the course for one year and told him he no longer qualified for a cum laude judgment. The university's examination appeals board upheld this on 31 March 2026. The student said he had only used an AI tool to categorise sources, giving it his existing reference list as input. On 12 August 2026 the Administrative Jurisdiction Division of the Council of State found that the references in the thesis text led to existing, relevant sources, that the AI had evidently garbled the student's own reference list, and that only carelessness, not fraud, had been shown. It annulled both decisions and ordered the thesis to be assessed again.

Core concern Medium reported severity

AI involvement supported · Causal attribution supported · 1 source · Added 02/11/2026

29 Jan 2025Event location unknownUnidentified AI analysis system

Spanish court rules a sugar company lab manager's dismissal unfair over underpaid severance; employer said AI had replaced lab analysis, report says

Noticias Trabajo reports that a sugar company dismissed its laboratory manager on economic and organisational grounds on 29 January 2025. According to the report, the company cited multimillion-euro losses from a fall in sugar prices and a new model that replaced traditional laboratory analysis with artificial intelligence and remote sensing, which made the physical laboratory he ran unnecessary and led to its closure. He had first been moved to a technician post, which the company then also cut. He challenged the dismissal: the first-instance social court found that the company had calculated his severance on a shortened length of service and a lower daily salary, paying 6,427 euros instead of 8,556 euros, and declared the dismissal unfair. The High Court of Justice of Castilla y Leon (judgment 18/2026) upheld that ruling, finding the shortfall of almost 25% showed a conscious and deliberate intention to pay less. The report says the grounds for the dismissal were valid and that the ruling was not final.

AI relation unknown Medium reported severity Lawsuit Ongoing

AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 1 source · Added 01/11/2026

Sept 2025RussiaUnidentified AI tools

Moscow Region court rules dismissal of programmer whose employer accused him of abusing AI unlawful and awards him over 1.2 million roubles

A court in Moscow Region, Russia, ruled in favour of a programmer whose employer had disciplined him and ended his employment, according to court materials reported by TASS on 27 October 2026 and relayed by regional outlets. In court the company's representative said the programmer had performed his duties improperly and had abused artificial intelligence when doing work tasks, which the company said its analytical reports showed. The programmer said the employer had pressed him to leave from September 2025 after he refused to sign an agreement moving him to hourly pay, and that he faced five internal inspections and three disciplinary penalties he disputed. The court found that the employer had ignored his written explanations, partly upheld his claim, changed the recorded ground of dismissal to termination at the employee's initiative, adjusted the dismissal date, lifted the penalties and awarded him over 1.2 million roubles in average earnings for the period of forced absence, plus moral damages and costs.

AI relation unknown Medium reported severity Lawsuit Filed

AI involvement reported · Causal attribution supported · 4 sources, 1 underlying account · Added 28/10/2026

Jun 2025Malaysia, JapanUnidentified video tool

Prosecutors say Malaysia-based ring used AI face-swapping to pose as Japanese police in video calls; eight victims lost about 18.65 million yen

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

25 May 2025IsraelUnidentified AI tool

Israel: Supreme Court finds Ramat Gan refused a special-education pupil school transport in a letter resting on uncontrolled AI use and invented rulings

In May 2025 the Ramat Gan municipality in Israel refused a request that a special-education pupil be given school transport from his father's home, citing an Education Ministry director-general circular and quotations from recent rulings. The father's lawyer could not find the circular, and the Education Ministry said it did not know it. After the father petitioned the Tel Aviv District Court, the municipality agreed in July 2025 to restore the transport but again filed invented quotations, and the district court refused costs. On appeal, the Supreme Court (Deputy President Noam Sohlberg, ruling published 22 March 2026) held that the documents left no doubt that the municipality had used artificial intelligence and that its decision, at least as presented to the pupil, clearly rested on uncontrolled AI use. It ordered the municipality to pay 30,000 shekels in costs.

Contextual tracker case Medium reported severity Involving minors

AI involvement supported · Causal attribution established · 3 sources · Added 27/10/2026

20 Mar 2025 to 14 Nov 2025Event location unknownUnidentified image tool

Amsterdam court jails man who used deepfake technology to pass a bank's face check with other people's IDs and open 47 accounts in their names

The Amsterdam District Court said in March 2026 that a 34-year-old man was suspected of opening 47 bank accounts in other people's names between 20 March and 14 November 2025 by using deepfake technology to mislead a bank's identity-verification system. At the hearing on 17 March 2026, the prosecution said he had beaten ABN AMRO's app check, which compares a face scan with the photo on an identity document, by replacing ID photos with his own and by adjusting his own face photos to resemble the ID photos; the judge noted that a selfie submitted with one woman's identity document showed features of her passport photo. The prosecution said identity documents of the victims in whose names accounts were opened were found on his phone. The man denied knowing of the fraud before late September 2025, and the court reopened the investigation on 31 March to examine his phone data. According to AT5, on 17 June 2026 the court sentenced him to two and a half years in prison, six months of it suspended, and ordered him to pay 13,000 euros to ABN AMRO; AT5 reports that he pasted his victims' facial features onto his own face with AI and that some of the accounts were used for bank-helpdesk fraud and cash withdrawals.

Core concern Medium reported severity Criminal Charges

AI involvement reported · Causal attribution supported · 3 sources · Added 26/10/2026

1 Dec 2025CzechiaUnidentified legal research tool

Czech Constitutional Court fines a lawyer 25,000 crowns over a complaint citing non-existent rulings; the lawyer says a paid legal AI tool drafted it

On 1 December 2025 the presiding judge of a chamber of the Czech Constitutional Court fined a Prague lawyer 25,000 crowns (a quarter of the statutory maximum) for grossly obstructing proceedings. The lawyer had filed a constitutional complaint, for a client refused a temporary residence permit, that argued from 12 decisions of the Constitutional Court and the European Court of Human Rights; the court found that a substantial part of them did not exist and part were grossly misinterpreted. The order says the complaint showed signs of generative AI and that the court presumed the lawyer had generated it with an AI model and then failed to verify the citations. The lawyer confirmed to INFO.CZ that an AI tool was used, described it as a paid professional model from a legal information system provider, said the output was not checked enough, and expressed regret. The court invited the client to correct the complaint so that the client would suffer no procedural harm; the complaint was later rejected as manifestly unfounded on 30 January 2026. INFO.CZ reported on 10 December 2025 that the lawyer had apologised and paid the fine and that the Czech Bar Association's supervisory board was examining the case.

Core + contextual relations Low reported severity Regulatory Action

AI involvement supported · Causal attribution established · 5 sources · Added 26/10/2026

19 Aug 2025IndiaUnidentified AI tool

India: Supreme Court says an Andhra Pradesh trial court dismissed defendants' objections citing AI-generated non-existent judgments, calling it misconduct

On 19 August 2025 a trial court in Andhra Pradesh hearing a suit for an injunction over a property dismissed the defendants' objections to an advocate-commissioner's report on the property, relying on four purported Supreme Court judgments that, according to the defendants and later the courts, do not exist. The defendants challenged the order in the Andhra Pradesh High Court, which, as the Supreme Court recorded, realised the judgments were AI-generated, recorded a word of caution, and on 21 January 2026 dismissed their petition on the merits. On appeal, the Supreme Court said in an order of 27 February 2026 that it took cognisance of the trial court deploying AI-generated non-existing, fake or synthetic alleged judgments, that a decision based on such judgments is not an error in decision making but misconduct, and directed that the trial court not proceed on the basis of the advocate-commissioner's report while the appeal is pending. In May 2026 the Supreme Court asked the Bar Council of India to set up an expert panel on AI-generated fake judgments. The AI tool is not named, the sources read do not name the judge, and no outcome of the appeal had been reported in the sources read.

Contextual tracker case Low reported severity Internal Action

AI involvement reported · Causal attribution supported · 4 sources, 2 underlying accounts · Added 25/10/2026

Apr 2025NetherlandsChatGPT

Dutch court strikes out a couple's marriage record because the ChatGPT-assisted ceremony speech left out the legally required declaration

The Rechtbank Overijssel (Zwolle location) ordered on 5 January 2026 that a couple's marriage record of April 2025 be struck out of the Zwolle register of marriages, holding that no marriage had come into existence. The couple had asked an acquaintance to conduct the ceremony as a one-day special registrar, and because they wanted a light-hearted ceremony the officiant wrote the speech with the help of ChatGPT. The speech, which the court quotes, asked the partners to stand by each other and declared them 'a team', but it did not contain the declaration that Dutch civil law (article 1:67(1) of the Civil Code) requires spouses to make. The public prosecution service says it brought the case after a report from the municipality. The couple said the error was not their responsibility, that the municipal registrar present had not corrected it, and that losing their wedding date had a great emotional impact; the court refused their request to keep the original date.

Contextual tracker case Low reported severity Lawsuit Dismissed

AI involvement supported · Causal attribution supported · 2 sources, 1 underlying account · Added 25/10/2026

2025Event location unknownChatGPT

Australia's Fair Work Commission refuses a former employee more time for a claim he brought on ChatGPT's advice, calling the proceedings hopeless

A former employee who had resigned in writing on 19 October 2022 applied to Australia's Fair Work Commission almost two and a half years later to have a general protections dismissal dispute dealt with, and asked for an extension of time for a delay of 919 days. In [2025] FWC 2289 (8 August 2025) the Deputy President recorded that he confirmed using ChatGPT to prepare the application, that the application included ChatGPT advice saying his former employer had contravened various obligations and suggesting he commence legal actions including this one, and that the Commission could see no basis for that advice. ChatGPT had also advised him to consult a lawyer or union representative, which he did not do. The Commission said he simply followed ChatGPT's suggestion, called the proceedings hopeless, found that his reliance on ChatGPT to bring an apparently unmeritorious claim told against an extension, announced its refusal at a conference on 6 August 2025 and dismissed the application.

Core concern Low reported severity Lawsuit Dismissed

AI involvement supported · Causal attribution supported · 2 sources, 1 underlying account · Added 25/10/2026

2025RussiaAntiplagiat AI-text detector

Russia: university expelled a student after its Antiplagiat AI-content check flagged her thesis; Kazan courts ordered reinstatement and damages

RAPSI and BIZNES Online reported on 8 and 10 June 2026 that the Supreme Court of Tatarstan upheld a ruling that a private Moscow university unlawfully expelled a distance-learning student in 2025 over suspected use of AI in her graduation thesis. According to the university's representatives in court as reported, the Antiplagiat.Vuz system first showed about 41% (41.91%) AI-generated text, her supervisor then said the word order had been deliberately disturbed in more than 70% of the text, and a third check showed 11.92%. BIZNES Online also reports, from the court documents, that a university representative told the court the supervisor does not operate the checking system and had not in fact analysed the text for neural-network generation, and could not explain how the system distinguishes borrowed text from AI generation. The university refused the revised work as late (uploaded on Monday 9 June 2025 against a deadline of 8 June) and expelled her; the department's protocol cited a breach of good-faith work in the Antiplagiat.Vuz system. She denied using AI. In January 2026 the Vakhitovsky District Court of Kazan held the expulsion unlawful, ordered her reinstatement for a check of her thesis and, if it met the originality threshold, admission to the defence, and awarded 40,000 roubles in moral damages and a 20,000-rouble fine. The Supreme Court of Tatarstan dismissed the university's appeal: it held that the probabilistic report had not been checked by a competent expert and could not be the sole proof of bad faith, noted that the same text was classified as AI-generated in one report and not in another, and found no evidence that any flagged fragments resulted from her deliberate acts rather than her sources or an incorrect algorithm. The courts also held the deadline had been miscounted.

Contextual tracker case Medium reported severity Lawsuit Filed

AI involvement supported · Causal attribution supported · 3 sources, 1 underlying account · Added 25/10/2026

23 Jun 2025NetherlandsChatGPT

Dutch court rules a recruitment consultant's summary dismissal invalid; his employer had cited his ChatGPT queries about severance among seven grounds

On 23 June 2025 a recruitment agency summarily dismissed a recruitment consultant it had employed since January 2024, giving seven grounds in its dismissal letter. One ground, misuse of company resources and an integrity breach, concerned questions he had put to ChatGPT on his work laptop about how to obtain a severance payment from the employer: the employer said he made defamatory statements about it there and breached his duty of confidentiality with the information he entered. He did not dispute the queries. In a decision given on 27 February 2026, the sub-district judge of the Rechtbank Zeeland-West-Brabant ruled the dismissal invalid, because the employer had not established another ground and the seven grounds formed a single composite reason. On the ChatGPT ground the judge found that private use of the laptop had not been forbidden, that he had shared only information about his employment relationship and no company secrets, and that this was culpable to a limited extent. In a final decision of 22 May 2026 the court awarded him a transition payment of 2,976.04 euros gross, fixed damages of 4,565.70 euros gross and costs, but refused the 25,000 euros of fair compensation he sought, weighing his limited income loss and his own culpable conduct, which it listed as including his sharing of information about the employment relationship. His fixed-term contract would have ended on 1 August 2025, when he started a new job.

AI relation unknown Medium reported severity

AI involvement reported · Causal attribution supported · 3 sources, 1 underlying account · Added 25/10/2026

Apr 2025ChinaUnidentified video tool

Beijing Internet Court finds a short-drama maker used AI face-swapping to give a performer a well-known actress's likeness, infringing her portrait rights

On 20 March 2026 the Beijing Internet Court announced a portrait-rights judgment over an online short drama in which, it found, the production company used deep-synthesis (AI face-swap) technology to generate an image highly similar to a well-known actress, according to Beijing Daily and a Sina Finance report drawing on it. In April 2025 internet users had questioned whether the drama had face-swapped a performer into the actress, and many believed she had appeared in it. The court found that two segments of the 44-episode, roughly 90-minute drama used AI face-swapping and that the face resembled the actress closely enough for the public to identify her. The maker argued that the image was generated by AI without any prompt relating to her and could not reproduce its process in court. The court held the maker liable for portrait-rights infringement and the broadcaster liable for failing to review the content, and ordered both to post written apologies on their video accounts and pay economic damages; neither appealed. The amount is not reported in the sources read.

Core concern Low reported severity Lawsuit Filed

AI involvement reported · Causal attribution established · 3 sources, 1 underlying account · Added 24/10/2026

26 Jun 2025 to 27 Jun 2025VietnamStudyX and Gemini

Hanoi police open a criminal case after two graduation exam candidates photographed exam papers and had AI apps StudyX and Gemini solve them

Hanoi police said on 1 July 2025 that they had opened a criminal case for unintentionally disclosing state secrets after two candidates in Vietnam's national high school graduation exam on 26 and 27 June 2025 smuggled phones into exam rooms, photographed exam papers and used AI apps to solve them. According to the police account reported by Thanh Nien and VnExpress, one candidate uploaded part of the maths paper to the StudyX app but copied only two answers, and did the same in the chemistry and physics papers; the other photographed the maths, history and English papers and used Gemini, was caught by the exam board and was suspended from the exam. A photo of part of the maths paper had appeared on an AI maths-solving app before the exam ended, worrying candidates and parents about exam security. Police said students who did this would be disqualified, have their results annulled and could face administrative or criminal action. Neither candidate is named.

Core concern Medium reported severity Investigation Opened

AI involvement reported · Causal attribution supported · 2 sources, 1 underlying account · Added 23/10/2026

26 Jun 2025VietnamChatGPT

Vietnamese police open a criminal case after an exam candidate streamed his graduation exam paper to a friend who solved it with ChatGPT

On 26 June 2025, during the literature paper of Vietnam's national high school graduation exam in Lam Dong province, an invigilator caught an 18-year-old candidate using a hidden button camera and wireless earpiece and suspended him from the exam. According to the provincial police account reported by Bao Lam Dong and VnExpress, he had streamed the paper to a 17-year-old friend at an internet cafe, who photographed part of it, used the ChatGPT app to solve it and read the answers to him over a Messenger call. On 27 June 2025 the Lam Dong police security investigation agency opened a criminal case for intentionally disclosing and appropriating state secrets, because unreleased graduation exam papers are classified; police said initially that only the two young people were involved and that they had found no further sharing of the paper. Neither is named.

Core concern Medium reported severity Involving minors Investigation Opened

AI involvement reported · Causal attribution supported · 3 sources, 1 underlying account · Added 23/10/2026

9 Dec 2025United StatesZeroEyes gun detection

Florida middle school locked down and police sent after ZeroEyes AI gun detection flagged a student's clarinet as a possible gun, reports say

On 9 December 2025 a Seminole County, Florida, middle school went into a Code Red lockdown and police rushed to the campus after the ZeroEyes AI weapons detection system, whose alerts are checked by the company's human analysts before police are notified, flagged a student holding a clarinet as a possible gun. According to a police report reviewed by The Washington Post (as relayed by Ars Technica) and obtained by WKMG News 6, officers expected an armed person in camouflage holding a shouldered rifle; dispatch later told them the suspected rifle was likely a band instrument, and police found the student, who was dressed as a military film character for a themed dress-up day, among panicked students hiding in the band room. Officers questioned him and found no weapon in his backpack or instrument case (Oviedo Community News, February 2026). The student said he was unaware the way he held the clarinet could trigger the alert. ZeroEyes said it had not made an error, while also treating the alert as a true positive only until officers on the ground found no rifle and then classifying it as a false positive; the district said the system worked as intended; the principal asked parents to talk to their children about the dangers of pretending to have a weapon.

Contextual tracker case Low reported severity Involving minors Media Coverage

AI involvement reported · Causal attribution supported · 4 sources, 3 underlying accounts · Added 23/10/2026

Nov 2025South KoreaUnidentified image tool

Seoul court fines a district office official 6 million won for posting generative-AI fake couple photos of a female colleague on his social media profile

The Seoul Southern District Court on 11 September 2026 fined a male official in his fifties at a Seoul district office a total of 6 million won for making and posting false images and for defamation, according to Korean reports of the ruling. Under the charges, in November 2025 he took a photo of a female colleague in his department from the office's organisation chart, used generative AI to composite it into pictures that made them look like a couple, and posted them four times on his social media profile. The judge cited the colleague's statement that she felt shame, insult and disgust, and that rumours had spread at work. Police had initially found no offence before the case was sent back to prosecutors. Both he and the prosecution appealed, and the Seoul city personnel committee voted to dismiss him.

Core concern Medium reported severity Criminal Charges

AI involvement supported · Causal attribution established · 3 sources, 2 underlying accounts · Added 22/10/2026

14 Oct 2025United KingdomUnidentified image tool

Central Scotland: man jailed after court hears he used a Telegram AI 'nudify' bot to make indecent pseudo-images of a teenage girl and shared one

According to court reports by STV News, a prosecutor told a sheriff court in central Scotland that police who searched a man's tablet found a chat between him and an artificial intelligence bot on Telegram that generates nude pictures from images of real people. The prosecutor said he used the bot to generate 12 indecent pseudo-images of a female child, identified as a teenage girl known to him, and that on 14 October 2025 one of the images was distributed between him and other users of an anonymous chat app. He pleaded guilty in August 2026 to downloading and distributing child sex abuse images, and on 21 October 2026 the sheriff jailed him for 12 months and placed him on the sex offenders' register for ten years.

Core concern High reported severity Involving minors Criminal Charges

AI involvement reported · Causal attribution supported · 2 sources, 1 underlying account · Added 22/10/2026

Jun 2025 to Aug 2025AustraliaUnidentified chatbot

Fair Work Commission in Sydney upholds a software developer's dismissal, finding his reliance on AI-drafted complaint emails was counterproductive and led to it

A senior software developer employed for more than 11 years by Fujifilm Data Management Solutions in Australia was dismissed for serious misconduct on 7 August 2025 after a workplace bullying complaint escalated into a stream of complaint emails to managers. In [2026] FWC 835 (18 March 2026) the Fair Work Commission recorded that he agreed he relied on an AI large language model to prepare the emails, found that drafts were generated by AI, and recorded managers' unchallenged evidence that he appeared to consult ChatGPT during meetings. It found the emails inappropriate, combative and disproportionate, and said his use of AI 'was counterproductive. It led to his demise', appearing to give him a false sense of security. Because he accepted responsibility, the tribunal did not treat the AI use as an excuse; it held the dismissal was not unfair and dismissed his application. A Full Bench refused permission to appeal on 2 July 2026.

Core concern Medium reported severity Lawsuit Dismissed

AI involvement supported · Causal attribution supported · 3 sources, 2 underlying accounts · Added 21/10/2026

2025RussiaDeepSeek

Moscow court upholds a sales director's dismissal for disclosing trade secrets, including uploading company reports to DeepSeek, and rejects her severance claim

A Moscow district court upheld an engineering company's dismissal of its head of sales for disclosing trade secrets, according to RAPSI and Pravo.ru reports of 27 July 2026. The grounds included uploading protected internal reports to the Chinese chatbot DeepSeek, forwarding company documents to her personal email and disclosing strategic information to a supplier. The court held that uploading trade secrets to DeepSeek is in itself a disclosure. She had sought a dismissal by mutual agreement and a contractual severance payment of 5 million roubles. The court rejected both, annulled a separate reprimand and awarded her compensation for moral harm. The decision was not yet final.

AI relation unknown Medium reported severity Lawsuit Dismissed

AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 4 sources, 1 underlying account · Added 19/10/2026

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.