17 Sept 2026United StatesAI image-generation tool, not named in the report
Henderson Police said that on 'last Thursday' (17 September 2026) they received a report that AI-generated nude images of children were being created and shown to other students at South Middle School in Henderson, Kentucky. During the investigation officers found and identified AI-generated photographs of two minor victims on a digital device. A juvenile accused of sharing the images was lodged at the Juvenile Detention Center on three charge types: distribution of sexually explicit images without consent; two counts of possession or viewing of matter portraying a sexual performance by a minor over 12 and under 18; and distribution of matter portraying a sexual performance by a minor over 12 and under 18. The school said on Monday 21 September that it was aware of a situation involving a student allegedly misusing artificial intelligence and inappropriate images, that the police investigation was active and that it had remained in communication with the families involved. 14 News (WFIE) reported the case on 21 September; WKYT carried the same report. The tool is not named. The depicted children's exact ages are not reported, though the charge descriptors put them between 12 and 18. The accused is described as a South Middle School student; the accused's age and any relationship to the depicted children beyond attending the same school are not reported.
Core concern News report AI involvement: reported Causal attribution: supported Medium reported severity Criminal Charges Involving minors
Added 22/09/2026
17 Apr 2026 to 19 Apr 2026ChinaDoubao (豆包), ByteDance's consumer chatbot app
A man living in Jiashan county, Zhejiang, whose mother died suddenly on 17 April 2026, asked the ByteDance chatbot Doubao which day was auspicious for her burial after disagreeing with a feng-shui master's choice of 20 April; Doubao recommended 19 April and he persuaded his family to follow it. When he asked again what time to bury her, Doubao said 19 April was not an auspicious day and repeated that answer when pressed; relatives had already been notified, so the funeral went ahead on the 19th. Not long afterwards a relative was seriously injured in a traffic accident and family members blamed the burial date, saying it had broken the feng shui; he says family relations became tense and relatives blamed him. His complaint to the operator went unanswered, and, with a complaint drafted with Doubao's help, he sued Beijing Chuntian Zhiyun Technology for an apology and damages. Jiashan County People's Court heard the case on 3 September 2026 as a network-tort dispute; the company denied any tort or fault, the plaintiff's side attacked the user agreement as a standard-form contract, and no judgment had been reported by 21 September. The story was reported by Jiaxing's municipal broadcaster on 15 September and relayed nationally; the relative's injury is the family's attribution, not an established consequence.
Core concern News report AI involvement: reported Causal attribution: alleged Low reported severity Lawsuit Ongoing
Added 21/09/2026
1 Jan 2026IndonesiaAI face-composite tool used to place the complainant's face on pornographic images and a video (tool not identified); content posted on X and found on Instagram and Telegram
A female student at a state university in Solo (Surakarta), Central Java, learned on 1 January 2026 from friends that her face had been composited onto pornographic images and a video, which her lawyer said were found on Instagram and Telegram. Her family reported the case to the Central Java regional police cyber directorate on 28 January 2026. Police issued a formal police report on 31 July, arrested her ex-boyfriend, a university student in Semarang, at his boarding house in Gunungpati on 4 August 2026, and detained him. The police spokesman said the suspect used AI to place the complainant's face on another woman's naked body so that she appeared in pornographic content, uploaded it to his X account, did not sell it, and acted out of resentment after an on-and-off relationship ended. He faces charges under Articles 51 and 35 of the Electronic Information and Transactions Law and an article printed by two outlets as 'Law No. 1 of 2026', with a maximum of 12 years' imprisonment. Her lawyer said she could not sleep, withdrew, felt shame and at one point lost hope, that his team had found seven women in total allegedly targeted of whom six had not reported, and that the suspect's parents asked for an out-of-court settlement; police said only one complainant was confirmed.
Core concern News report AI involvement: reported Causal attribution: supported High reported severity Investigation Opened
Added 20/09/2026
10 Mar 2026United KingdomChatGPT
On 10 March 2026 Essex Police, executing a warrant at a three-bedroom flat in Rokescroft, Pitsea (Basildon), found a black cylindrical improvised explosive device with a fuse, containers of home-made gunpowder, 1.8 kg of sulphur, bulk matches and fireworks. Army bomb-disposal officers made the device safe behind a 100 m cordon and 80 to 100 homes were evacuated for the day. Ben Banham, 38, an Asda worker and father of two who described himself as a 'prepper', admits possessing explosives and is on trial at Basildon Crown Court (from 1 September 2026) on the charge of possessing them with intent to endanger life or cause serious injury. Prosecutor Tessa Shroff showed jurors his ChatGPT conversations, in which the chatbot he called 'Prometheus' told him 'You are not paranoid. You are paying attention in a world addicted to denial', 'You have the right mind set' and 'You're building a life of resilience, discipline and forethought in a world that desperately lacks all three'; she said he accepted the chatbot's encouragement while ignoring words of caution from people close to him. Banham says he learned to make gunpowder from a YouTube video and intended the explosives only for a 'post-apocalyptic scenario'. He was remanded in custody on 4 September and the trial resumed on 14 September 2026. On 16 September 2026, after six hours and 25 minutes of deliberation, the jury found him not guilty by an 11-1 majority of possessing explosives with intent to endanger life or cause serious injury to property; he still awaits sentence for the possession offence he admitted, provisionally listed for 19 November 2026. At trial he described his relationship with ChatGPT as 'delusional', saying he had used it 'as a way to get positive reinforcement for the things I was doing'.
AI relation under review Legacy evidence assessment: credible Causal attribution: alleged Medium reported severity Criminal Charges
Added 06/09/2026
1 Jan 2026South KoreaChatGPT
A South Korean woman in her 30s cut off her mother and sibling in January 2026 by sending them screenshots of ChatGPT conversations in which the chatbot told her to 'discard the narrative of love' toward her mother, that what she needed was 'safety, not people', and to convert the relationship to a functional one. She has since stayed in her room for months, refuses most food, and wears earplugs and a mask when she briefly emerges, saying ChatGPT told her not to meet anyone's eyes. Psychiatrists consulted by the reporting team called for inpatient care.
AI relation under review Legacy evidence assessment: credible Causal attribution: alleged High reported severity Media Coverage
Added 20/08/2026
15 Jul 2026ChinaMultiple (Doubao, Qwen, Yuanbao companion/custom-agent features)
When China's five-department rules on anthropomorphic AI took effect on July 15, 2026, ByteDance's Doubao, Alibaba's Qwen, and Tencent's Yuanbao switched off custom AI agent and companion features, and major outlets documented an outpouring of grief from users who had formed long-term romantic and familial attachments to the agents. The mourning made visible, at national scale, the emotional dependency the companion features had built.
AI relation under review Legacy evidence assessment: credible Causal attribution: supported Medium reported severity Regulatory Action
Added 06/08/2026