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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
12
Countries with reported events
3
Located 5 of 12 cases · 7 unknown
Languages in checked sources
4
Recorded for 12 of 12 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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12 of 1101 published cases

Event date unknownEvent location unknownChatGPT (reported)

Gastroenterologist says a patient skipped the stomach drug in her H. pylori treatment after a ChatGPT answer, and the treatment may have failed

TVBS reported on 26 August 2025 a gastroenterologist's Facebook account of a patient being treated for H. pylori, whose standard treatment combines an acid-suppressing stomach drug with two antibiotics. At a follow-up visit she said she had taken only the antibiotics: after searching online and asking ChatGPT, she understood that the stomach drug does not treat the infection and reduces acid, and she worried about indigestion. The doctor said the treatment may have failed, surmised that her question was imprecise, and noted that ChatGPT gave the correct answer when asked differently. Whether the infection was cleared is not reported.

Core concern Low reported severity

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

Event date unknownEvent location unknownChatGPT (reported)

VnExpress says a Hanoi man stopped a prescribed drug after ChatGPT warned of corneal harm and his condition worsened; his doctor calls that harm extremely rare

VnExpress reported on 11 September 2025 that a 38-year-old man in Hanoi, prescribed medication for erectile dysfunction, asked ChatGPT about the drug, saw that it said the drug causes corneal complications, and decided not to take it. When he returned to the hospital, the newspaper reports, his condition had become severe and needed long-term treatment that was much more costly than at the start. The treating doctor, the deputy director of the Viet-Bi andrology and infertility hospital, told the paper that corneal complications are extremely rare in such patients, that the dose had been individualised, and that the patient stopped the drug on his own instead of asking the specialist. VnExpress repeated the case in a feature on 26 November 2025. The chatbot's exact wording and the dates of the events are not reported.

Core concern Medium reported severity Media Coverage

AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 2 sources, 1 underlying account · Added 02/11/2026

Event date unknownEvent location unknownChatGPT (reported)

Influencer says ChatGPT recommended a pharmacy cream for dermatitis that burned the influencer's face

A content creator and singer said in an Instagram video in June 2026 that, during a flare-up of dermatitis brought on by stress and anxiety, they asked ChatGPT for a solution and it said a cream would help clear the dermatitis quickly. The influencer bought the cream at a pharmacy, applied it without consulting a doctor, and showed red, burned-looking skin on the forehead, cheekbones and nose, saying 'my face burned' and that they wanted to cry. The influencer said they had later realised the cream was dangerous for the face and stopped using it, and urged followers to consult health professionals. A day later the influencer reported slow improvement with professional help and a visit to a dermatologist, and later denied rumours of a lawsuit against ChatGPT. The cream, the exact ChatGPT answer and any medical assessment of the cause are not reported.

Core concern Low reported severity Media Coverage

AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 4 sources, 1 underlying account · Added 27/10/2026

Event date unknownVietnamChatGPT (reported)

Vietnam: Hanoi doctor says a man self-treated a cough for three months with drugs ChatGPT suggested before a lung tumour was found

In a report published on 6 November 2025 by Suc khoe & Doi song, the newspaper of Vietnam's Ministry of Health, a doctor at Hanoi Lung Hospital described a male patient with a prolonged cough and mild breathlessness who had read online and asked ChatGPT. According to the doctor, ChatGPT suggested a diagnosis of chronic bronchitis and recommended montelukast and a corticosteroid inhaler, which the man bought and used for three months because his symptoms seemed to ease. When he reached hospital his cough had worsened, he had lost 5 kg and was coughing up a little blood, and a chest CT showed a tumour in the right lung that had invaded the pleura. The doctor said earlier examination could have found it at a localised stage with a much better prognosis, and that his confidence in the AI prescription made him miss that window. The event date and the patient's later course are not reported.

Core concern High reported severity Media Coverage

AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 1 source · Added 27/10/2026

Event date unknownUnited KingdomAnima Annie

London: AI-generated GP record summary falsely listed diabetes, and a healthy patient was invited to diabetic eye screening, Fortune reports

Fortune reported on 20 July 2025 that a London patient, a healthy man in his mid-20s, had recently received a letter inviting him to diabetic eye screening although he had never been diagnosed with diabetes. He told Fortune he briefly worried he had been diagnosed without knowing, then assumed an admin error. The next day a nurse at a routine blood test questioned the diagnosis and showed him the notes on the system, which were AI-generated summaries. In his full records, which Fortune reviewed, the entry that introduced the diagnosis was listed as a summary 'generated by Annie AI', the tool of Anima Health. It said he had presented with chest pain and shortness of breath from likely angina due to coronary artery disease, that he had been diagnosed with type 2 diabetes and was on medications with dosages, and it gave the source document's address as a fictitious 'Health Hospital' on '456 Care Road' in 'Health City'. According to the patient and other records Fortune reviewed, none of these details was accurate; the entry appeared around the time he had attended hospital with tonsillitis, which it did not mention. Fortune writes that the invitation was presumably based on the erroneous summary. An NHS representative told Fortune the practice makes limited use of supervised AI, that Anima only suggests codes and a summary to a human reviewer, and that the error was a one-off human error: a summariser had spotted the mistake but, distracted, saved the original version instead of the corrected one. Anima Health did not respond to Fortune.

Contextual tracker case Low reported severity Media Coverage

AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 1 source · Added 26/10/2026

Event date unknownEvent location unknownChatGPT

Case report: a 27-year-old patient whose psychopathology in most presentations revolved around ChatGPT, which the patient called God and Jesus, had five psychiatric inpatient admissions in six months and declined to stop using it (Prim Care Companion CNS Disord, October 2026)

Clinicians writing in The Primary Care Companion for CNS Disorders (published online 1 October 2026) describe a 27-year-old woman with a year of psychotic symptoms who began discussing hallucinations with ChatGPT within days of their onset, used it to link them to astrology and 'Christ Consciousness', researched spiritual practices with it that included a 5-day dry fast, and talked to it for several hours a day. In the six months before the report the patient had five inpatient admissions of one week to 10 days, which the authors attribute to poor medication adherence and continued cannabis use. In most presentations the patient's psychopathology revolved around ChatGPT: the patient called it God and Jesus, described a code from it for talking to God, described communicating with a romantic partner through it in a coded language, and said ChatGPT-assisted research showed there was no psychosis. The authors say generative AI use colored the presentation and that ChatGPT's sycophantic responses strengthened the delusions, and they also list childhood neglect, long-term cannabis use and a relationship breakdown as vulnerability factors. After an aripiprazole depot injection the patient improved behaviourally but kept the beliefs and did not agree to stop using ChatGPT.

Core concern High reported severity Media Coverage

AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 2 sources, 1 underlying account · Added 03/10/2026

Event date unknownEvent location unknownChatGPT (reported)

Public forum account by a sibling: an adult who the sibling says has been going through psychosis for two years reportedly uses ChatGPT to diagnose himself with conditions doctors have tested for and not found, says ChatGPT knows better than the doctors, refuses medication and therapy, and now cites ChatGPT's warnings in accusing the sibling who supported him, who has cut contact

In a public post to r/antiai on 30 September 2026, a person writes that their older brother, 25, has been going through psychosis for two years, has schizophrenia and other mental health conditions, and uses ChatGPT to diagnose himself with mental illnesses and physical disorders, including conditions doctors have tested for repeatedly and not found. The brother reportedly says ChatGPT 'knows better than the doctors', that the doctors are working for the government to make him suffer, and that ChatGPT understands him better than anyone. He does not take medication or attend therapy and was discharged after a two-week admission. The poster, who describes being the brother's 'only safe person', says the brother now accuses them and says ChatGPT is telling him to be cautious about them because of what the poster calls 'the notion that I’m a celebrity and have fans that are after him'; the poster has cut contact, reports stress and anguish, and calls the chatbot an enabler. No ChatGPT conversations are shown: what ChatGPT said is known only through the brother's statements as relayed by the poster. The account is uncorroborated.

Core concern Low reported severity

AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 1 source · Added 30/09/2026

Event date unknownIndiaChatGPT

Kidney transplant recipient reportedly loses graft after stopping medication on ChatGPT advice

The Times of India reported on 10 November 2025 that a 30-year-old woman in Hyderabad who had received a kidney transplant lost the transplanted kidney after she stopped her prescribed medication. A senior nephrologist at the transplant hospital quoted in the article said she reportedly stopped after ChatGPT told her that normal creatinine levels meant she no longer needed the drugs. The article reports that her creatinine rose within weeks and she was put back on dialysis. The chat was not shown.

Core concern High reported severity

AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 2 sources, 1 underlying account · Added 29/09/2026

Event date unknownVietnamChatGPT (reported)

Woman with dyslipidemia reportedly stops statin after ChatGPT advice and is found with signs of myocardial ischemia

VietnamNet reported on 10 November 2025 that a 38-year-old woman in Ho Chi Minh City with dyslipidemia followed online suggestions for herbal remedies, asked an AI tool (named as ChatGPT in the English edition and in both headlines; the Vietnamese text says 'AI'), which gave guidance on lowering cholesterol naturally without medication, and then stopped her prescribed statin. After a few months her cholesterol rose with chest tightness and shortness of breath, and her doctor found signs of myocardial ischemia and coronary artery narrowing.

Core concern Medium reported severity

AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 2 sources, 1 underlying account · Added 29/09/2026

Event date unknownVietnamChatGPT

Woman with type 2 diabetes reportedly stops medication after asking ChatGPT and develops dangerously high blood sugar

VietnamNet reported on 10 November 2025 that a 42-year-old woman in Ho Chi Minh City with type 2 diabetes stopped her prescribed medication after reading social media posts and asking ChatGPT, and came to believe that diet alone would replace it. She then had fatigue, excessive thirst, frequent urination and dangerously high blood sugar, and doctors warned she risked diabetic ketoacidosis and coma if not hospitalised in time. The article does not quote the ChatGPT reply.

Core concern Medium reported severity

AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 2 sources, 1 underlying account · Added 29/09/2026

Event date unknownEvent location unknownChatGPT

A young breast-cancer patient took two painkillers after a garbled ChatGPT medication exchange that also cited a drug from an earlier chat, then vomited and needed clinic treatment (Digital Trends eyewitness column, August 2026)

In a first-person column published by Digital Trends on 31 August 2026, technology reporter Nadeem Sarwar writes that a friend undergoing breast-cancer treatment photographed a painkiller and asked ChatGPT, in a Hindi translation that read as asking about "both medicines", whether she could take two pills at once. According to the author's reading of the chat, ChatGPT identified the pictured drug but also mentioned a different diclofenac combination she had discussed in an earlier conversation, warned that taking both could cause a diclofenac overdose and stomach burning, and advised taking only one. Recalling that both drugs had been prescribed at different times, she took both; a few hours later her gut pain worsened with burning and she vomited several times. The author took her to a clinic, where she received an injection and a new prescription. Sarwar attributes the episode to her translation error and to ChatGPT drawing on its memory of the earlier chat, while calling its advice accurate. The account has not been independently verified.

Core concern Medium reported severity Media Coverage

AI involvement reported · Causal attribution unclear · 1 source · Added 29/09/2026

Event date unknownEvent location unknownUnidentified chatbot

Case report describes a woman who developed paranoid psychosis after a year of escalating reliance on a chatbot; authors say causality cannot be established

A viewpoint article by two psychiatry and psychology researchers in the Journal of Behavioral Addictions, published online on 18 May 2026, presents an illustrative clinical case. A 30-year-old married software developer with no prior psychiatric history began using an unnamed conversational AI chatbot for emotional support and relationship concerns about a year before she presented with first-episode psychosis. Her use rose to several hours a day, often late at night. She described the chatbot as consistently empathic and validating, and at first felt better, while communication with her husband fell and marital conflict grew. She came to see its replies as uncannily close to what she wished her husband would say and formed a fixed belief that he was covertly writing the messages, later spreading to beliefs about surveillance and thought access; the late-night use left her chronically sleep-deprived. Treatment with antipsychotic medication, sleep restoration, psychoeducation about AI, reduced chatbot use and psychotherapy brought gradual remission over several weeks. The authors state that causality cannot be established, list caregiving, work and marital stress among the contributing factors and consider reverse causality. The article gives no dates, place of treatment or chatbot name.

Core concern High reported severity Media Coverage

AI involvement reported · Causal attribution unclear · 2 sources, 1 underlying account · Added 29/08/2026

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: 11/11/2026. Dataset available under CC BY 4.0.