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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
118
Countries with reported events
29
Located 104 of 118 cases · 14 unknown
Languages in checked sources
23
Recorded for 118 of 118 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.

No known event years in this selection.

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118 of 1099 published cases · page 1 of 6

Event date unknownIndonesiaUnidentified image and video tool

Semarang court jails university student for a year over AI-edited sexual images made with faces from the student's former high school

In October 2025 indecent photos and videos showing the faces of female students and at least one teacher of a public high school in Semarang, Central Java, spread on X from the account of a university student in Semarang who had attended the school. Kompas described the videos as made with AI editing. The student posted an apology on the school's Instagram account saying the student had edited and uploaded friends' photos and videos without permission. Central Java police's cyber directorate investigated, named the student a suspect and took the student into custody on 13 November 2025; the police spokesman said investigators had established the elements of an AI-based pornography offence that also breached the electronic information and transactions law. On 5 March 2026 Semarang District Court sentenced the student to one year in prison and a 2-billion-rupiah fine, more than the seven months prosecutors had sought. According to ANTARA, the court found that the student had produced 1,100 pornographic photo and video files, that the content remained publicly accessible and that the editing caused the victims psychological trauma. Both sides said they would consider the verdict; no appeal outcome was found.

Core concern High reported severity Criminal Charges

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

Event date unknownEvent location unknownUnidentified image tool

Victorian court hears police found images on a man's phone in which AI put his stepdaughter's face on explicit images; he pleaded guilty to child offences

A central Victorian man pleaded guilty in the Bendigo Magistrates' Court on 20 October 2026 to charges including an indecent act with a child under 16 and possessing and producing child abuse material, the Bendigo Advertiser reported on 29 October. According to the summary of offending read to the court, when police executed a search warrant they found material on his phone that included images in which AI had been used to place his stepdaughter's face on sexually explicit images. The indecent-act charge concerns an incident in 2015, when she was 13. The man cannot be named for legal reasons. The police prosecutor asked for a term of imprisonment; the magistrate adjourned sentencing to 3 December 2026.

Core concern High reported severity Criminal Charges

AI involvement reported · Causal attribution supported · 1 source · Added 31/10/2026

Event date unknownCanadaUnidentified image tool

Southern Alberta girls' football coach pleads guilty over AI-made sexualised images of some of his players; a victim describes the harm at sentencing

A girls' football coach in southern Alberta pleaded guilty to child sexual exploitation offences after using AI to create sexualised images of some of his players, according to the Canadian Press report of his sentencing hearing in October 2026. Alberta's police child-exploitation unit (ALERT) had charged him in July 2025, alleging that he used AI to manipulate and sexualise images of underage girls and saying the images were shared on the Kik messaging app; it said the investigation dated back to November 2024. At the hearing the prosecutor read agreed facts saying he and a friend had shared the images, and one victim told the court of humiliation, fear and continuing worry that her image is still circulating. The Crown sought two years in prison and the defence a community sentence; no sentence had been reported at review.

Core concern High reported severity Involving minors Criminal Charges

AI involvement supported · Causal attribution supported · 3 sources, 2 underlying accounts · Added 31/10/2026

Event date unknownChinaUnidentified video tool

Nanchong police say a man had AI face-swap obscene videos made from images of several female colleagues and spread them for profit; he was detained

Police in Nanchong, Sichuan, said on 29 October 2026 that their investigation found a man had secretly filmed or stolen image material of several female colleagues, commissioned other people to make AI face-swap obscene videos from it, and spread the videos for profit through social platforms in and outside China and a QQ group he ran, charging entry fees and selling goods. According to the police, a female colleague or colleagues (the account does not say how many) discovered what had happened and called the police; he was traced, caught and placed in administrative detention, and the case remains under investigation. The police did not say how they established that the videos were AI-made, how many colleagues were depicted or when the conduct took place.

Core concern High reported severity Investigation Opened

AI involvement reported · Causal attribution supported · 2 sources, 1 underlying account · Added 31/10/2026

Event date unknownTaiwan, ChinaUnidentified video tool

Taiwan police say a ring used AI deepfake face videos of at least 55 people in China to pass a digital-yuan app's identity check and take about NT$200 million

Taiwan's Criminal Investigation Bureau said on 2 February 2026 that a fraud-services ring working with offshore scam call centres obtained personal data and photos of people in mainland China and used deepfake technology, which public broadcaster PTS reports as AI, to make face-verification videos of the victims. The videos passed the identity check of China's digital-yuan (e-CNY) app, letting the ring bind the victims' bank accounts and move their savings. Police count at least 55 victims and losses of about NT$200 million. Officers raided the ring's flat in Beitun, Taichung, in November 2024, and its financier was arrested in Thailand and returned to Taiwan; Taichung prosecutors indicted four people for fraud, computer misuse and organised crime. The dates of the individual thefts are not reported.

Core concern High reported severity Criminal Charges

AI involvement reported · Causal attribution supported · 2 sources, 1 underlying account · Added 30/10/2026

Event date unknownUnited StatesA2E (reported)

Florida attorney general sues A2E operator, alleging its AI face-swap tool was used to make sexual images of a Tampa man's stepchildren and other victims

On 28 October 2026 Florida's attorney general filed a civil complaint in Sarasota County against Rengstorff Consulting Ltd, operator of the A2E AI platform, alleging that its nudification and face-swap tools let users make sexual images of non-consenting people, including children, without meaningful monitoring or reporting. The complaint cites a Tampa case: police arrested a man on 8 June 2026, and the complaint says he admitted using A2E's face-swap tool to make nudified images of eight people, including his two young stepchildren. WFLA reported on 25 June 2026 that detectives believed images were AI-generated, found searches for AI face-swap tools and charged him with six counts of generating altered sexual depictions without consent alongside child sexual abuse material charges. The complaint also cites a Tallahassee arrest in April 2026 in which some images carried an A2E watermark. The attorney general seeks an injunction, disgorgement and civil penalties. The allegations are untested. In an email to the Florida Phoenix reported on 30 October 2026, A2E said it was consulting its legal team, had always treated child sexual abuse material very seriously and had been cooperating with law enforcement to detect and prevent it.

Core concern High reported severity Involving minors Lawsuit Filed

AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 4 sources, 3 underlying accounts · Added 30/10/2026

Event date unknownLebanonUnidentified video tool

Lebanon police say pages sold remedies using AI-generated videos falsely showing a complainant endorsing them; arrests and raids followed

In a statement published on 28 October 2026, Lebanon's Internal Security Forces (ISF) said their Cybercrime and Intellectual Property Bureau had received a complaint, filed with the competent judiciary, against Facebook and TikTok pages that promoted various medicines and preparations using videos generated by artificial intelligence, in which the complainant appeared in a way that falsely suggested the complainant was promoting the products. The products were said to treat stomach and joint pain, prostate and heart problems, blood sugar and blood pressure, and included sexual enhancers and slimming preparations. A patrol caught two people in the act of handing dozens of orders to a delivery company, with 13,602 US dollars they said came from daily sales; raids in Beirut and other areas led to further arrests and the seizure of thousands of containers. The ISF said some mixtures did not match the ingredients on the labels, that paper records of thousands of orders indicated a large number of buyers, and that the Ministry of Public Health was testing the seized products. The ISF did not say how it established that the videos were AI-generated, and the complainant is not named.

Core concern Medium reported severity Investigation Opened

AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 2 sources, 1 underlying account · Added 29/10/2026

Event date unknownTaiwanUnidentified video tool

Taiwan police say a Taichung fraud call centre used an AI face-swap tool in video calls to win the trust of women in the US and Canada

Taiwanese police said in June 2025 that a fraud call centre in Shalu district, Taichung, had targeted overseas Chinese women in the United States and Canada with romance-investment fraud. According to the police account reported by SETN and carried by Yahoo News Taiwan on 4 June 2025, the call centre created a range of male personas, cultivated relationships with the women, and video-chatted with them through an 'AI face replacement tool' that swapped the operator's face for a persona's; because the picture was very realistic, police say, many victims believed it, after which they were talked into investing in fake energy products and sending money to accounts the suspects supplied. Police say analysis of seized phones identified seven women in the US and Canada who were defrauded, with losses of about NT$3.5 million so far, and that the number of victims and the amount were still being compiled. A photo caption in the report says officers demonstrated the face-replacement tool. The call centre was raided in November 2024, and nine suspects were referred to Taichung prosecutors, seven of them detained; no indictment or verdict has been found.

Core concern Medium reported severity Investigation Opened

AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 1 source · Added 29/10/2026

Event date unknownEvent location unknownCursor coding agent

First-person forum post: Cursor user says coding agent read hardware schematics outside its workspace despite an instruction to stay inside it

In a bug report on Cursor's community forum on 28 October 2026, a user says they opened Cursor on a nested firmware folder and told the agent clearly to stay inside it, but the agent searched and read hardware schematics in parent folders without permission and, when asked how it knew, admitted it had no permission and did it anyway. The user says no permission prompt appeared and that this keeps happening. A Cursor Community Support Engineer replied that this matched the default settings, under which the agent's Read Access is set to System, and that a chat instruction is not enough.

Core concern Low reported severity

AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 1 source · Added 29/10/2026

Event date unknownUnited StatesUnidentified video tool

Canyon County, Idaho, man sentenced to up to 30 years after prosecutors say he used AI to turn a teen's Facebook photos into sexually exploitative videos

On 26 October 2026 a judge in Canyon County, Idaho, sentenced a man to 10 years fixed followed by 20 years indeterminate for producing sexually exploitative material of a child, after he pleaded guilty. According to the Canyon County Prosecuting Attorney's Office, he took photographs of a teenager he knew from Facebook and used artificial intelligence software to turn them into pornographic videos; KTVB reports that he admitted using AI. Police found the material after a traffic stop in Greenleaf in May 2026. The victim told the court about the toll on their life, saying they felt disgusted looking at themselves because someone else chose to violate them. The tool used is not named.

Core concern High reported severity Involving minors

AI involvement reported · Causal attribution supported · 3 sources, 1 underlying account · Added 28/10/2026

Event date unknownBrazilUnidentified video tool

Rio Grande do Sul police say gang used deepfake video of Gisele Bündchen to sell a free skincare kit; Porto Alegre woman who paid the fee got nothing

A woman in Porto Alegre, Brazil, saw an online video in which the model Gisele Bündchen appeared to promote a free skincare kit, paid the R$44.57 shipping fee and received nothing. Her police report, registered on 4 August 2024, led the Rio Grande do Sul Civil Police to Operation Modo Selva. On 1 October 2025 police executed 26 court orders in five states against a group they say used deepfake videos of celebrities, including Gisele Bündchen and several TV presenters, in fake product promotions; four people had been arrested by the time of the reports. The investigating delegate said the criminals had created a deepfake of the model's image and voice. Police say the scheme moved at least R$20 million, and assets worth up to R$210 million were frozen. The model thanked police for finding criminals who use artificial intelligence for online scams. No charge or trial outcome has been reported since.

Core concern Medium reported severity Investigation Opened

AI involvement reported · Causal attribution supported · 3 sources, 2 underlying accounts · Added 27/10/2026

Event date unknownEvent location unknownUnidentified video tool

Hangzhou court orders two men who used AI face-swap videos to defeat a shopping platform's face checks and take users' data to apologise and pay, reports say

Chinese media reports of September and October 2026 describe a civil public-interest suit that the Hangzhou procuratorate brought against two men in the Hangzhou Intermediate People's Court in Zhejiang. According to the court as reported by CCTV News, the two took other people's ID-card photos supplied by an upstream trade in personal data and used an overseas face-swap website to turn them into AI-generated moving videos that nodded, blinked and shook their heads, then fed the videos through a virtual-camera app so that a shopping platform's face liveness check accepted them, letting the men log into other people's accounts. The prosecution said they entered nearly 30 accounts on one shopping platform and took users' delivery addresses and shopping-cart data, which were passed on for sale, and used the same AI technique to verify 20 chat and dating accounts under other people's identities for sale. CCTV also reports a second, non-AI method the men used to enter accounts and does not say how many of the accounts each method reached. After police caught them, the two stopped, returned 5,857 yuan in illegal gains and admitted the conduct, and prosecutors decided not to charge them criminally. In court they admitted abusing AI to infringe other people's personal information and apologised; Chao News reports that they also argued that the face information was generated automatically by AI. The court found that they had abused AI to forge liveness verification and steal and resell user data, and ordered a public apology and public-interest damages equal to their gains. A 26 October report, citing an earlier Chao News report, dates the hearing and first-instance judgment to 4 September 2026.

Core concern Medium reported severity Lawsuit Filed

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

Event date unknownUnited StatesUnidentified image tool

Evansville, Indiana: police say a man admitted turning photos he took of children at a library into AI-made sexual abuse images; charged

Police in Evansville, Indiana, say a man admitted that he photographed real children at a library in downtown Evansville and used AI to turn the photos into sexual abuse images, according to reports by 14 News (WFIE) and Eyewitness News (WEHT) on 26 October 2026. Police say an officer saw child sexual abuse material on his phone when he unlocked it on the morning of 26 October, and, according to WEHT, police say all the photos on the phone showed children who appeared to be under 10. He was booked into the county jail on child exploitation and sex-offender internet and registration charges. The charges are unproven, and how many children were photographed is not reported.

Core concern High reported severity Involving minors Criminal Charges

AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 2 sources · Added 27/10/2026

Event date unknownIndiaUnidentified image and document tool

Kanpur Dehat, India: police say a man posing as a Secretariat official used AI-made photos with national leaders and AI-made appointment letters in a job fraud

Police in Akbarpur, Kanpur Dehat district (Uttar Pradesh), arrested a man on the night of 23 October 2026 who, they say, called himself a deputy director at the state Secretariat in Lucknow and took money from job seekers for government posts. Five people had jointly complained on 22 October that he took lakhs of rupees from them, gave them fake appointment letters for review officer and clerk posts and threatened to kill them when they asked for their money back. According to the station officer as reported by Amar Ujala, his office held several AI-made pictures showing him with the Prime Minister, the Chief Minister and other public representatives, which police seized; Amar Ujala reports that he showed such pictures to win people's trust. In police questioning, as relayed by Amar Ujala and Aman Yatra Live, he said that he made a fake identity card with AI tools and that appointment letters and orders prepared with AI were printed and handed or posted to candidates. The police do not say how the AI use was established or which tool was used. He was produced in court and sent to jail, and police say they are searching for other members of the group.

Core concern Medium reported severity Criminal Charges

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

Event date unknownHondurasChatGPT (reported)

San Pedro Sula, Honduras: police say a woman used AI and ChatGPT to fake bank-transfer receipts to deceive sellers of high-end phones

Honduras's National Police said on 24 October 2026 that they had arrested a 25-year-old woman in San Pedro Sula who, they say, found people selling high-end mobile phones on Facebook Marketplace and sent them fake bank-transfer receipts made with AI tools, including ChatGPT, so that they would believe she had paid. According to the police report as relayed by La Prensa, El Heraldo and TuNota, the deposits were not credited to the sellers' accounts. A seller alerted a motorcycle police unit while the attempt was under way, and she was arrested in the act on suspicion of attempted fraud. The outlets relay the preliminary findings in conditional wording; the police do not say how they established the AI use, and no seller's loss is quantified.

Core concern Low reported severity Criminal Charges

AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 4 sources, 1 underlying account · Added 25/10/2026

Event date unknownEvent location unknownUnidentified voice-cloning and deepfake tool

Nigeria: police say a suspect arrested in Lagos used AI voice cloning and deepfake technology to impersonate Elon Musk to victims of an investment scheme

The Nigeria Police Force National Cybercrime Centre (NPF-NCCC) said at a press briefing in Abuja on Friday 23 October 2026 that its operatives arrested three suspects in Lekki, Lagos State, on 14 October over alleged identity theft, investment fraud and money laundering. According to the centre's director, the suspects allegedly operated fake social media accounts impersonating prominent personalities to trick victims into transferring money, and were linked to a cryptocurrency investment scheme promoted through a website called Bitcoin Trading Hub. Investigators said one of the suspects used artificial intelligence voice cloning and deepfake technology to impersonate Tesla chief executive Elon Musk and communicate with victims, particularly in the United States and the United Kingdom. The police did not say how they established the AI use or which tools were involved, how many people were deceived or how much they lost. Seized devices were undergoing forensic examination to identify victims and trace the proceeds, and the three suspects remained in custody.

Core concern Medium reported severity Investigation Opened

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

Event date unknownUnited StatesUnidentified image and video tool

Texas: affidavit says a state police sergeant's hard drive held AI-modified sexual images of female colleagues and deepfake nude images of girls

The Monitor (MyRGV) reports, citing a probable cause affidavit, that a Texas Department of Public Safety staff sergeant was arrested on 3 March 2025 on a charge of possession or promotion of child pornography after his wife handed investigators a hard drive she had found. According to the affidavit, the drive held images of girls under 18 with their genitals exposed that "had been deepfake", and a Texas Rangers investigator said it also held sexually explicit videos and pictures of current female DPS employees' faces modified using an artificial intelligence application. DPS suspended him with pay and opened an administrative investigation; he was released on a $300,000 bond. He is presumed innocent, and no later outcome was found.

Core concern High reported severity Involving minors Criminal Charges

AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 2 sources · Added 24/10/2026

Event date unknownIsraelUnidentified image tool

Jerusalem police say three boys aged 13 to 15 used AI to turn social-media photos of schoolgirls into nude images and spread them; at least 30 girls harmed

Israel Police said in February 2025 that three boys aged 13 to 15 from Jerusalem were suspected of taking photos of girls from social media, editing them with artificial intelligence software into nude images and distributing them without consent. According to Ynet, at least 30 girls were harmed; police said investigators identified dozens of victims and that a search of the suspects' homes found edited nude images of several girls. The head of the Jerusalem district youth investigations unit described dozens of cases of girls' privacy being violated through nude images edited with AI technology. The three were questioned over publishing a sexual image without consent, and the case was passed to prosecutors to decide on charges.

Core concern High reported severity Involving minors Investigation Opened

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

Event date unknownMexicoUnidentified image tool

Mexico City: prosecutors arrest IPN student accused of making classmates' photos into nude images with AI; acquitted twice, later sentenced on another charge

In October 2023 female students at the National Polytechnic Institute (IPN) business school in Mexico City complained that a fellow student had taken their photos from social media and edited them with artificial intelligence to make them look naked; he was also accused of selling them, which the 2025 conviction did not establish. The IPN expelled him on 16 October and the Mexico City prosecutor's office (FGJCDMX) opened an investigation; on 26 October 2023 it announced his arrest, describing him as accused of manipulating intimate photographs altered with artificial intelligence. Students said eight victims had filed complaints. Police found more than 166,000 images and 20,000 videos, edited and original, on his devices. In December 2024 a judge acquitted him in two cases of violation of privacy; in May 2025 he was sentenced to five years in prison for child sexual abuse material, a conviction based on storage of the material. Other cases remained open.

Core concern High reported severity Criminal Charges

AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 4 sources · Added 22/10/2026

Event date unknownUnited StatesUnidentified image tool

Beverly Hills, California: school district says middle school pupils made AI nude images of 16 classmates and expels five

In February 2024 the Beverly Hills Unified School District told parents that officials at one of its middle schools had been made aware of AI-generated nude photos of students, which the superintendent said put students' faces on nude bodies, and a city official said police were investigating pupils whom authorities said used AI tools to create and share the images. In March 2024 the district confirmed the expulsion of five eighth-grade pupils; the superintendent said 16 students were targeted. Students and parents told NBC News they were afraid to go to school. The district did not say how it determined that AI was used.

Core concern High reported severity Involving minors Internal Action

AI involvement reported · Causal attribution supported · 3 sources · Added 22/10/2026

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: 04/11/2026. Dataset available under CC BY 4.0.