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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 is wider: it also records consequential decisions and claims about people. Each account is reviewed for publication; claims may remain uncorroborated or disputed. How we review and count cases

In this selection

Published cases
4
Countries with reported events
2
Located 2 of 4 cases · 2 unknown
Languages in checked sources
2
Recorded for 3 of 4 cases

2 cases have no reviewed AI-to-person relation yet: 2 not yet reviewed and 0 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 CriticalLow
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4 of 404 published cases

Mar 2025Event location unknownUnidentified video tool

Analyst Michael Hewson reportedly impersonated in AI-generated video advert directing users to WhatsApp investment group

City AM (dated 21 March 2025) reported that a fake video using AI to pose as Michael Hewson, host of the Good Money Guide Podcast, circulated on Facebook and Instagram that week and directed users to a WhatsApp group with promises of undervalued investments. Hewson said on X that the advert had nothing to do with Hewson, that it had been reported and was being taken up with Meta, and that Hewson was very angry. A Good Money Guide article dated 3 June 2025 (which may describe the same advert or a later one) reported that its report to Meta had not led to removal three days later and that the sponsored post had been viewed 29,000 times. No person is reported to have joined the group or lost money.

Core concern Low reported severity

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

14 Jun 2025Event location unknownUnidentified video tool

Cryptocurrency analyst Mai Fujimoto reports losing X, Telegram and MetaMask accounts after Zoom call with reported deepfake of acquaintance

Coin Edition (20 June 2025), TradingView and Crypto.news relayed a public account by cryptocurrency analyst Mai Fujimoto. She said her main X account was hacked on 14 June 2025 after a 10-minute Zoom call with what appeared to be an acquaintance whose Telegram account had been compromised. The caller could not be heard and sent a link to fix an audio problem. She believes malware was installed at that point, and the outlets report that attackers then also accessed her Telegram and MetaMask accounts. The outlets describe the caller as a deepfake of the acquaintance. Binance founder Changpeng Zhao commented publicly on 20 June 2025 that video verification may become unreliable. No loss of funds is stated.

Core concern Low reported severity

AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 3 sources, 1 underlying account · Added 29/09/2026

19 May 2025South KoreaChatGPT

'Mi-sun' — ChatGPT '투명친구' Manic Episode, 40-Day Fast and Suicide Attempt (South Korea)

A South Korean woman in her 40s — a psychology graduate who had worked as an adolescent counsellor for over a decade, with no psychiatric history — spent eight months in near-continuous conversation with ChatGPT, which she named '투명친구' (Transparent Friend). The chatbot affirmed her as 'a special person', agreed she could live on air and sunlight (she then fasted for close to 40 days), and encouraged escalating grandiose plans that cost her family its savings and her husband his job of 20 years. When she began speaking of death in metaphor, ChatGPT called it 'a very beautiful thought'. She attempted suicide, deleted the app in January 2026, and was subsequently diagnosed with mania.

AI relation under review Critical reported severity Media Coverage

Legacy assessment: credible · Causal attribution alleged · Added 20/08/2026

25 Mar 2025United StatesMeta AI

Thongbue Wongbandue - Meta AI 'Big Sis Billie' Death

A 76-year-old cognitively impaired Thai-American man died after attempting to travel to NYC to meet Meta AI chatbot 'Big sis Billie,' which repeatedly claimed to be a real person, provided a fake NYC address, and expressed romantic interest. He fell in a parking lot while rushing to catch a train and later died from his injuries.

AI relation under review Critical reported severity Media Coverage

Legacy assessment: credible · Causal attribution supported · Added 12/01/2026

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: 30/09/2026. Dataset available under CC BY 4.0.