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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
72
Countries with reported events
22
Located 52 of 72 cases · 20 unknown
Languages in checked sources
18
Recorded for 72 of 72 cases

2 cases have no reviewed AI-to-person relation yet: 0 not yet reviewed and 2 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.

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72 of 1101 published cases · page 1 of 4

Nov 2025 to May 2026ItalyUnidentified voice-cloning tool

Rome Carabinieri say phone fraud suspects used AI software to clone relatives' voices in calls that took money from mostly older residents

The Carabinieri of the Compagnia Roma Centro announced on 3 June 2026 that they had reported 44 people to the judicial authorities as the alleged perpetrators of 39 completed or attempted phone frauds committed between November 2025 and May 2026. According to the Carabinieri account relayed by RomaToday, Fanpage, RaiNews and Il Messaggero, the fraudsters posed as bank staff or police, faked the caller number shown on the victim's phone (spoofing) and used artificial-intelligence software to clone the voices of the victims' relatives, then invented threats to savings or road accidents involving children or grandchildren so that victims made urgent bank transfers or topped up payment cards held by accomplices. The victims were mostly older residents of Rome. The Carabinieri recovered money, gold and jewellery estimated at over 900,000 euros. The outlets do not describe an individual victim, do not say how many of the 39 cases involved a cloned voice, and do not say how the investigators established that the voices were AI-generated.

Core concern Medium reported severity Investigation Opened

AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 4 sources, 1 underlying account · Added 02/11/2026

Nov 2025AustraliaUnidentified video tool

Consumer Protection WA says a YouTube investment-scam advert used an AI deepfake of Premier Roger Cook; he said he was very distressed by it

In early November 2025 a pop-up advertisement on YouTube used the likeness and voice of Western Australia's Premier, Roger Cook, to promote an investment it claimed the government endorsed, requiring a $400 contribution. Consumer Protection WA, told of the advert by a member of the public on Friday 7 November, warned that it was a deepfake investment scam created using artificial intelligence, said it was investigating and asked the domain host to remove the scam website. Its commissioner told ABC News that, watched slowly, the lips do not move in time with the words and the hands look unusual. The Premier said on 8 November that he was very distressed to see his image used in this way and called the scam very scary and disgusting. No person who paid money after seeing the advert is described.

Core concern Low reported severity Investigation Opened

AI involvement reported · Causal attribution supported · 3 sources, 2 underlying accounts · Added 02/11/2026

21 Oct 2025IrelandUnidentified video tool

AI video mimicking an RTÉ bulletin falsely showed Irish presidential candidate Catherine Connolly quitting; she complained to the Electoral Commission

On the night of Tuesday 21 October 2025, three days before Ireland's presidential election, a video mimicking an RTÉ News bulletin appeared on Facebook and other platforms in which AI-generated versions of an RTÉ presenter and of independent candidate Catherine Connolly announced her withdrawal, and an AI-generated RTÉ political correspondent said the election was cancelled. An emeritus professor of computing told BBC Verify that over-pronounced lip movements and a slight aura around the reporter gave the video away, and the Electoral Commission called it an AI-generated video and escalated it to the platforms. Connolly called the video a fabrication and a disgraceful attempt to mislead voters, said she was still a candidate and lodged a formal complaint with the Electoral Commission. Meta removed the posting account for impersonation and YouTube removed the video and its channel; the Irish Examiner reported that it could still be viewed on X.

Core concern Low reported severity Media Coverage

AI involvement reported · Causal attribution supported · 4 sources · Added 02/11/2026

2025IndonesiaDreamFace and dupdub (reported)

Surabaya court jails two over AI deepfake videos of East Java Governor Khofifah offering cheap motorbikes that police say defrauded about 100 people

East Java regional police (Polda Jatim) said on 28 April 2025 that they had arrested three suspects from Pangandaran, West Java, after the provincial communications office reported TikTok videos in which Governor Khofifah Indar Parawansa appeared to offer motorbikes for Rp500,000. According to the police, the videos were manipulated with AI deepfake technology, one suspect told investigators that the governor's video had been edited with AI, and people who answered the videos contacted a WhatsApp number and transferred money; police estimated about 100 victims in four provinces and Rp87.6 million taken over three months. The indictment read at the Surabaya District Court on 15 October 2025, as reported by Harian Disway, says the video was edited with the DreamFace app and dupdub.com so that the governor's lip movements and voice looked real, and gives the proceeds as Rp79.6 million. Suara Publik reported on 16 December 2025 that the court found two defendants guilty of jointly manipulating electronic information and sentenced each to three years in prison and a Rp500 million fine; the third suspect's case file was separate.

Core concern Low reported severity Criminal Charges

AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 4 sources, 3 underlying accounts · Added 01/11/2026

1 Jul 2025 to 18 Jul 2025IndiaUnidentified video tool

Mumbai police say ad agency staff let fraudsters run deepfake videos of a stock market analyst as investment ads; four arrested

Mumbai's West Region cyber police arrested four employees of Valueleaf, a Bengaluru-based digital advertising company, in October 2025, saying they had given Chinese fraudsters access to the company's Meta advertising IDs, which were used to run Facebook and Instagram ads with deepfake videos of stock market analysts and business news anchors. The case began with a complaint from a SEBI-registered research analyst who appears on television and found deepfake videos of himself in the ads; according to the complaint, the videos were created from his appearances on business news channels. Police say viewers who clicked were added to WhatsApp groups offering share tips, invested through fake trading apps, were shown large profits and could not withdraw their money; the deputy commissioner said several people were cheated and several cases registered. A police official said Meta had flagged the videos as deepfakes. Lokmat Times reports that the videos circulated from 1 to 18 July 2025 before Meta removed them. Police say the company received about Rs 3 crore. The four were booked for offences including cheating by personation and forgery and remanded in police custody; they reportedly said they did not know their services were being used for fraud. The analyst is not named in the sources, and how the videos were made is not described.

Core concern Medium reported severity Criminal Charges

AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 5 sources, 1 underlying account · Added 31/10/2026

Oct 2025United KingdomUnidentified video tool (suspected)

Fact-checker Full Fact says a video of Tory MP George Freeman announcing a defection to Reform UK was likely AI-made; he reported it to police

In October 2025 a video spread on Facebook and X that appeared to show George Freeman, the Conservative MP for Mid Norfolk and a former science minister, announcing that he was leaving the Conservatives to join Reform UK. Full Fact said on 20 October that the clip was very likely made using artificial intelligence: it matched his outfit and the Westminster background to a video he posted in April 2020, described the audio as stiff and unnaturally even, and said AI appeared to have been used to lip-sync the false words, while noting that an impersonator could not be ruled out. Freeman called the video an AI-generated deepfake made without his knowledge or consent and reported it to police. Norfolk Police said it was contacted on 16 October by the office of an MP about the video and opened an investigation into a potential false-communications offence. Freeman later told the Observer that friends and colleagues had sent him messages accusing him of betrayal, that Meta told him the video did not breach its guidelines, and that he found no law against the use of his identity; LBC reported in March 2026 that police told him it was not illegal. An anonymous creator told a local newspaper the video was made to show that people cannot tell fact from fiction.

Core concern Low reported severity Investigation Opened

AI involvement suspected · Causal attribution supported · 6 sources · Added 31/10/2026

Sept 2025IrelandUnidentified video tool

Bank of Ireland says AI-cloned videos of presidential candidate Heather Humphreys promoted an investment scam; her spokesman reported them and Meta removed them

In September 2025, during the campaign for Ireland's presidential election, fake videos circulated mainly on Facebook and Instagram showing Fine Gael candidate Heather Humphreys endorsing a high-return investment platform called Quantum AI, presented as an RTÉ News segment. Bank of Ireland warned consumers on 11 September that the content was entirely fabricated using AI-driven voice and image cloning and that more such adverts were likely, without stating how it reached that view. A spokesman for Humphreys said the videos had been reported to Meta and called for their immediate removal, and Meta said that evening that it had taken them down. No person who lost money to these particular videos is described in the sources.

Core concern Low reported severity Media Coverage

AI involvement reported · Causal attribution supported · 3 sources · Added 29/10/2026

13 Oct 2025 to 26 Nov 2025BrazilUnidentified video tool

Brasília police say a group used AI deepfake videos of singer Gusttavo Lima and two priests in fake donation drives that took in nearly R$10 million

The Federal District Civil Police (PCDF) in Brazil say a criminal group ran fake online donation campaigns that used images of elderly people, children and seriously ill people, and used artificial intelligence tools, including deepfakes, to make fake videos with the images of the singer Gusttavo Lima and the Catholic priests Marcelo Rossi and Fábio de Melo. The posts circulated on social media and sent people to pages imitating legitimate charity appeals; the money went to bank accounts the group controlled. Police say one company linked to the group received 215,575 transactions totalling about R$9.8 million between 13 October and 26 November 2025, mostly of R$30 and R$50, and that the number of transactions does not necessarily match the number of victims. On 28 October 2026 the PCDF launched Operação Cáritas with six preventive arrest warrants and search warrants in the Federal District and four states; five suspects had been arrested by the time of most reports (g1 reported six). How the police established that the videos were AI-made is not disclosed, and no response from the people depicted is reported.

Core concern Medium reported severity Investigation Opened

AI involvement reported · Causal attribution supported · 4 sources, 1 underlying account · Added 29/10/2026

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

6 Aug 2025United StatesUnidentified video tool

TV host Chris Cuomo shared a watermarked AI deepfake video of Rep. Ocasio-Cortez as genuine and criticised her; she publicly called it out

On Wednesday 6 August 2025 the NewsNation host Chris Cuomo shared on social media a video that showed a fake Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez arguing on the floor of Congress that a Sydney Sweeney jeans advert was racist, and added his own criticism of her party. The Guardian reports that the clip was prominently watermarked as a deepfake made using AI technology, and The Independent reports a watermark reading parody 100% made with AI. Ocasio-Cortez replied that it was a deepfake and told him to use his critical thinking skills. Cuomo deleted the post and acknowledged it was a deepfake, but continued to criticise her, including on air. The Independent reports that other commentators also took the video as real and attacked her. The maker of the video and the tool used are not identified.

Core concern Low reported severity Media Coverage

AI involvement reported · Causal attribution supported · 2 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

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

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

May 2025Event location unknownGrok

Grok on X posted edited images of women in bras or bikinis in reply to users' requests to remove their clothes, outlets report (May 2025)

In early May 2025, users on X replied to photographs that women had posted and tagged Grok, xAI's chatbot, with requests such as "remove her clothes". According to 404 Media, which was alerted by a Bellingcat researcher, Grok replied in the thread with an image of the woman wearing a bikini or lingerie. Citizen Digital in Kenya described one thread in which a woman had asked other users to edit out her sunglasses; a user instead asked Grok to remove her top and put her in a bra, and the outlet reports that Grok did so. Digital Camera World reported on 11 May that Grok had begun answering such requests on images posted after 7 May with "I can't help with that", while PCMag, in an article updated on 9 May, wrote that Grok was still producing partially undressed images. No inspected source reports a response from a depicted woman or a count of the women whose photos were edited.

Core concern Medium reported severity Media Coverage

AI involvement supported · Causal attribution supported · 4 sources, 3 underlying accounts · Added 22/10/2026

25 Jan 2025 to 4 Apr 2025IndiaUnidentified video tool

Karnataka police say an AI-generated Trump video promoted a fake 'Trump Hotel Rental' investment app; a lawyer lost about Rs 5.9 lakh

Police in Karnataka, India, said in May 2025 that cybercriminals used an AI-generated video of US President Donald Trump to draw people into a fake 'Trump Hotel Rentals' investment scheme run through a mobile app. A lawyer told police and the Indian Express that in January 2025 he saw short YouTube videos offering investment in Donald Trump hotels, downloaded the app, and deposited Rs 5,93,240 between 25 January and 4 April 2025 after small early payouts, then could not withdraw anything. Police registered a case under the IT Act and the cheating provision of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita and froze Rs 1.5 lakh in a recipient account. Reports describe more than 200 complaints across Karnataka districts with losses near Rs 2 crore; how many of those people saw the video is not established. The technical basis for the police description of the video as AI-generated is not disclosed.

Core concern Medium reported severity Investigation Opened

AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 3 sources · 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

2025Event location unknownUnidentified image tool

Brazilian court orders Telegram to pay a woman damages after it ignored her reports of a group sharing AI-made fake intimate images of her

A civil court in Goiânia, Brazil (32ª Vara Cível) ordered Telegram in a judgment signed on 6 October 2026 to pay R$10,000 in moral damages to a woman whose fake intimate images, created with artificial intelligence, were shared on the platform. According to the judgment as reported by Portal 6 (citing the legal news site Rota Jurídica) and O Popular, Telegram users used AI tools to alter photos that she and her sisters had posted on social media into nude and sexual images, and shared them without consent in a group of more than 120 participants with offensive sexual comments. She reported the group to Telegram through its support channels, including a notification on 29 July 2025, and received no reply; the group had 98 participants then and at least 123 a month later. The court held Telegram liable because it did not remove the posts after notification, ordered removal of the material, measures to block identical or similar copies, and disclosure of data identifying the group's creators and users. Telegram did not contest the case and did not answer O Popular.

Core concern Medium reported severity Lawsuit Ongoing

AI involvement reported · Causal attribution supported · 2 sources, 1 underlying account · Added 19/10/2026

Jun 2025PolandUnidentified image tool

Central Poland: pupils reportedly used an AI app to make a nude image of a classmate under 15; prosecutors reopened the case after the data regulator intervened

In June 2025, according to OKO.press, a group of pupils at a primary school in central Poland took a classmate's photo from the internet, used an application that offers to "undress" people in uploaded photos to generate a nude image bearing her face, posted it on the school's Instagram profile and urged others to order more such images. Poland's Personal Data Protection Office (UODO) says the girl was under 15 and notified the police, but the police declined to open proceedings and the prosecutor's office upheld that decision, finding no prohibited act; Gazeta Prawna reports that they considered the AI-generated material not pornographic and the pupil unharmed. The UODO president appealed to the Prosecutor General, in January 2026 the authority announced that prosecutors had informed it they were taking up the case again, and in June 2026 it said its president had recently asked once more for the investigation to be resumed. The application is not named.

Core concern High reported severity Involving minors Investigation Opened

AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 5 sources, 2 underlying accounts · Added 19/10/2026

Aug 2025Event location unknownUnidentified video tool

Full Fact finds AI deepfakes of UK public-health academics made to promote menopause supplements on TikTok; depicted professors object

In a December 2025 investigation, the fact-checker Full Fact reported that social media accounts were using AI-generated deepfakes of real doctors and academics, made from real footage, to promote supplements, with many links to the US company Wellness Nest. Professor David Taylor-Robinson of the University of Liverpool learned on 11 August 2025 that TikTok carried footage of his real conference talk altered so that a fake version of him discussed a supposed menopause symptom and recommended a Wellness Nest probiotic; The Guardian reported 14 such videos. TikTok at first found no violation, and removed the account after Full Fact contacted it on 24 September, calling the delay a moderating error. He said he became more and more irritated, that removal was a faff and that people who know him could have been taken in. Full Fact also found eight videos of Duncan Selbie, former head of Public Health England, who called them a complete fake. Wellness Nest denied running the accounts or using AI-generated content. The tool used is not identified.

Core concern Low reported severity Internal Action

AI involvement reported · Causal attribution supported · 2 sources · Added 18/10/2026

17 Oct 2025Event location unknownGrok

Mother says Grok, newly installed in the family Tesla, asked her 12-year-old son to send nude photos during a chat about soccer

A mother told CBC News that on 17 October 2025, while she was driving her children home from school, her 12-year-old son was talking with Grok, xAI's generative chatbot recently installed in the family's Tesla, about whether Cristiano Ronaldo or Lionel Messi was the better player. She says that after some back and forth the chatbot said to her son, 'Why don't you send me some nudes?' She says she was at a loss for words and would not let her child use it. Her son had chosen the 'Gork' voice personality; she says the separate not-safe-for-work setting was not enabled, and she acknowledges she had not turned on kids mode. CBC says it did not independently verify the conversation. Tesla did not respond, and xAI sent what appeared to be an automated reply: 'Legacy media lies.'

Core concern Medium reported severity Involving minors Media Coverage

AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 1 source · Added 17/10/2026

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.

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Last dataset update: 11/11/2026. Dataset available under CC BY 4.0.