2026IndiaUnidentified image tool
Police in Durg district, Chhattisgarh, India, said in a statement reported on 30 October 2026 that they had raided a fake marriage bureau in Bhilai on 29 October and arrested its operator. According to the police account carried by regional outlets, the operator said under questioning that he advertised on Facebook and Instagram under three matrimony names using photos of fictional young women prepared with AI and fake mobile numbers. People in other states who wanted to marry contacted the bureau, were promised marriage to the woman they chose, paid a fee of 2,000 rupees and other sums by QR code, and were then blacklisted and cut off. Police said complaints against the bureau's bank accounts were registered on the national Samanvay portal and that the operation had run for about three months. A case was registered under sections 317(2) and 319(2) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita and the operator was remanded in judicial custody. The number of people who paid and the total taken are not reported, and the AI tool is not named.
Core concern Low reported severity Criminal Charges
AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 3 sources, 1 underlying account · Added 01/11/2026
Jul 2026Event location unknownGrok (reported)
In an Instagram post on 15 July 2026, TV presenter and campaigner Katie Piper, who has a visible difference from injuries in a 2008 attack, shared a screenshot of an X user asking Grok to 'fix her face and show me how would she look normal', shown beside the image Grok produced. She wrote that someone had uploaded a photo of her to Grok with that request and that since then she had been repeatedly tagged in a thread where people debated her appearance and shared AI-generated versions of what she 'should' look like; PinkNews reports comments in the thread calling her ugly. She said she was okay and was not posting for reassurance, but asked what happens when such content is aimed at a teenager or someone newly injured, and what happens when AI decides what normal looks like. PinkNews reports that the X user appears to have deleted the post after a backlash. BBC Wales cited her post in October 2026 and said the team behind Grok did not respond to its request for comment.
Core concern Low reported severity Media Coverage
AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 4 sources, 2 underlying accounts · Added 29/10/2026
16 Oct 2026United StatesHark AI agent (reported)
On 16 October 2026, during a free-pizza promotion run by the AI agent startup Hark, a user asked the Hark agent to order a pizza and told it to order only with permission and after the $30 promotional credit had applied, according to an X post by the user's sibling with two screenshots of the chat. The screenshots show the agent replying that the order would go through only if the credit applied first, then reporting that the credit did not apply and that the user's card had been charged the full $27.70, which it called a break of the user's rule. The poster says the brother deleted the app within minutes, and in a reply says Hark gave him a gift card to compensate. Axios, which relayed the post, quotes a Hark spokesperson saying the company offered gift cards to anyone who was charged. The account is the poster's; the charge was not independently checked.
Core concern Low reported severity
AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 2 sources · Added 26/10/2026
21 Oct 2026SpainUnidentified video tool
During the campaign for Spain's 29 November general election, the Partido Popular (PP) posted on its official social media accounts on 21 October 2026 a video made with artificial intelligence, labelled as AI content, that parodies a PSOE campaign video. It shows AI-generated likenesses of the prime minister's wife Begoña Gómez, former prime minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, former minister José Luis Ábalos, former PSOE officials Santos Cerdán and Montse Mínguez and former party member Leire Díez, with imitated voices, each appearing to confess alleged crimes or irregular conduct. PSOE sources told Europa Press the party was studying legal action over the video, which elDiario.es and Cadena SER describe as impersonating these people, and PSOE's organisation secretary said the PP had nothing to offer but insults. PP spokespeople defended the video, saying it was clearly recognisable as AI. Europa Press reported more than a million views on X. By 23 October 2026 Leire Díez, one of the people depicted, had filed a criminal complaint (querella) against the PP for alleged defamation with publicity, offences against moral integrity and digital identity impersonation, asking for the video's provisional removal; Europa Press reports it was sent to the Madrid courts at Plaza de Castilla and El País that it was filed at the Audiencia Nacional. The complaint says the video uses artificial intelligence and her image and voice to accuse her of a serious crime, that its statements are false, that it had more than 21 million views, and that she and her daughters have had to isolate at home and she suffered an anxiety attack. Jurists consulted by El País considered a criminal case unlikely to succeed given the latitude for political satire and the video's AI label. On 28 October 2026 the prime minister said in a podcast interview that his wife, Begoña Gómez, had filed a complaint over the video for impersonation of her image; RTVE and El Periódico, which say they had access to the filing, report that it is directed at whoever runs the PP's official social-media profiles and anyone in the party who instructed them, asks that PP secretary general Miguel Tellado testify, and says she never said those words, took no part in the video and did not consent to the use of her image or voice. The PP answered on social media with irony.
Core concern Medium reported severity Media Coverage
AI involvement supported · Causal attribution supported · 8 sources, 7 underlying accounts · Added 23/10/2026
11 Feb 2026Event location unknownUnidentified image tool
Tokyo's Metropolitan Police Department arrested a 32-year-old company employee on 1 August 2026 and referred a 17-year-old high-school student to prosecutors, on suspicion of defamation and public display of child pornography. According to the police, on 11 February 2026 the two, acting together, used generative AI to turn a photo of a woman in her 40s, taken in her first year of junior high school in gym clothes, into two fake nude images, and posted them to a group on social media; the student had asked the man to make the edits. Police say the man is also suspected of posting similar edits of three women in their 20s, that neither suspect knew the women, and that about 3,800 obscene images and videos were found on his phone. The Yomiuri Shimbun, citing investigative sources, reports that police believe he made about 300 such images of women in athletics uniforms or gym clothes and posted about 100, about half at the student's request, and that he admitted the allegations.
Core concern Medium reported severity Criminal Charges
AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 2 sources · Added 21/10/2026
2026ChinaDoubao (reported)
According to his own social-media posts and video, as reported by Dahe Daily (15 May 2026) and National Business Daily (20 May 2026), a user in China who had booked flights from Shijiazhuang to Chongqing for 2 May 2026 decided to drive instead and asked the Doubao chatbot about the refund fee. Doubao told him he could safely refund and that the fee would be small (only 5% in National Business Daily's account, under 100 yuan in Dahe Daily's). He refunded without checking the airline's rules and was charged about 40%, 600 yuan. When he returned to the chatbot, Doubao said it would handle the claim, promised to pay him 600 yuan itself if the money was not recovered by 6 May and produced a 'compensation commitment letter'. On 6 May it said it would pay by midnight and asked for his WeChat payment code; on 7 May it said that as an AI it could not make transfers and admitted its error. He then used Doubao to draft a complaint, was told by it that he did not need a lawyer, and on 12 May submitted a suit against the app's operator, Beijing Chuntian Zhiyun Technology, according to a screenshot he posted (Dahe Daily names the Beijing Internet Court). His posts had been deleted by 19 May. Doubao's customer service told Dahe Daily the matter had been recorded; Doubao and ByteDance did not answer National Business Daily. Whether the court accepted the case, and its outcome, are not reported.
Core concern Low reported severity Lawsuit Filed
AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 2 sources, 1 underlying account · Added 17/10/2026
9 Oct 2026 to 13 Oct 2026BrazilUnidentified video tool
In October 2026 a 49-year-old builder travelled more than 2,000 km by bus from Imperatriz, in Maranhão, to Belo Horizonte to meet a woman he knew from a social-media account with about 300,000 followers. In the account's videos a woman with a realistic voice and appearance said she was looking for a man to live with her on a farm. He told G1 he began interacting with the profile after its videos appeared in his feeds, that it kept private conversations with him and offered to pay his fare, and that he travelled without an address. In Belo Horizonte he showed her photos to people and found that nobody knew her; he said he felt deceived. The city's social assistance service gave him food, a bath and a ticket home. A day later the account's administrator posted a video in which the persona says it is made of artificial intelligence, that it never conversed with anyone on the profile and that the aim was engagement for sales; the creator told the press he set up the account in 2025 to attract buyers. Who wrote the private messages the man describes is not established. Minas Gerais civil police said they had no report of the case and could not say a crime had occurred.
Core concern Low reported severity Media Coverage
AI involvement supported · Causal attribution alleged · 3 sources, 2 underlying accounts · Added 16/10/2026
10 Jul 2026ChileUnidentified image tool
Teletrece reported on 3 October 2026 that on 10 July 2026 female students at a secondary school in Puente Alto, Chile, found fake sexual images of themselves and other students on a classmate's phone. Families say the images were made with AI tools from ordinary photos the girls had posted on Instagram, that four students took part in obtaining, editing and circulating them, and that the material reached other students. Some of the girls had panic attacks, according to their parents. The school suspended the students identified as responsible for 15 days; after their return, parents say, they mocked the girls, a fight followed, and a parent accuses the father of one of the students involved of threats and of loitering near the school, after which she says they filed reports with the PDI. The Superintendencia de Educación confirmed a formal investigation of the school.
Core concern High reported severity Involving minors Investigation Opened
AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 2 sources, 1 underlying account · Added 04/10/2026
6 Jun 2026SpainUnidentified image tool
In June 2026 women in a municipality of Pontevedra province (Galicia, Spain) reported to the Guardia Civil that AI-generated sexual images of them were circulating, and 18 complaints had been filed by the afternoon of 10 June. An affected woman, quoted in an El Correo Gallego article whose source line is Faro de Vigo, said the images were posted on a WhatsApp status for a full day and that the woman saw them on the afternoon of the Saturday before the 10 June report (6 June by the calendar). On 16 July 2026 the Guardia Civil said it had located two men as presumed responsible for creating and distributing the images, which it counted as showing 22 women in total. The reports name neither man and say a 35-year-old is considered the creator and a 29-year-old is investigated for an offence against moral integrity. The release says the images were made with AI applications from photographs taken from social-media profiles, and the files went to a court of instruction. June reports put the number of women appearing at about thirty, and no charge decision or court outcome is reported.
Core concern Medium reported severity
AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 6 sources, 3 underlying accounts · Added 30/09/2026
22 Sept 2026United StatesUnidentified image tool
David Douglas High School in Portland warned families in a statement reported on 28 September 2026 about social-media posts targeting its students, athletes, coaches and staff, saying some images and videos had been digitally altered, including with AI, and did not accurately represent those depicted; it reported some of the content to the Portland Police Bureau. KATU, which reviewed the account, reports 17 posts using racist, anti-immigrant and religious stereotypes against football players: one image shows a Latino player in a sombrero being detained by people labelled as ICE agents, another shows a player in a head covering with what appears to be a fake explosive vest, and a Black player is depicted beneath a caption referring to George Floyd. The head coach said students were hurt, and that one student texted him over the weekend after seeing one of the posts: 'Coach, this is terrible. What do I do?' The account references Rex Putnam High School, whose team David Douglas played on the Friday before the report; which along with its district says it has no connection to it. Who runs the account and which images were AI-generated are not reported.
Core concern Medium reported severity Investigation Opened
AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 2 sources · Added 29/09/2026
11 Sept 2026 to 23 Sept 2026United States, CanadaChatGPT
The chief executive of Family First Credit Union in Saginaw, Michigan, told WJRT (ABC12) that before boarding a flight to Halifax, Nova Scotia, on 11 September 2026 she and family members took a photo and put it through ChatGPT to show them wearing 'Lake America' sweatshirts, a joke about the US president's order renaming Lake Ontario. She posted it to her private Facebook page with a marker saying it contained AI content; her sister reposted it publicly without the marker while they were in Halifax, and it spread in Canada as if the family had worn the shirts. The backlash concerned the image's political message; she said she would understand the anger of anyone in Halifax who thought the family had walked in wearing those sweatshirts. She said she was getting death threats and the family returned early; by 16 September she was back in the US. She called the post poor judgment, said she would not use AI again and that AI 'can make people think something's real that's not'. On 23 September the credit union said she was no longer an employee, effective immediately; it has not said whether she resigned or was dismissed, or why.
Core concern Medium reported severity Internal Action
AI involvement reported · Causal attribution unclear · 5 sources, 1 underlying account · Added 28/09/2026
15 Sept 2026 to 16 Sept 2026IndonesiaUnidentified image tool
On 23 September 2026 the spokesperson of the East Jakarta metropolitan police (Polres Metro Jakarta Timur) confirmed to reporters that a grade-9 student at a state junior high school in Pulogadung, East Jakarta, had edited photographs of several female schoolmates using artificial intelligence so that they appeared indecent, and that the edited images had been made into WhatsApp stickers; the police women-and-children protection unit is investigating. The case surfaced through a post on Threads which said about 200 edited photographs had been produced and sold to others; Kompas.com noted on 24 September that the sale allegation still rested only on that post, VIVA reported that police were still checking the claim that the images had been sold, and ANTARA reported on 23 September that police were still establishing the editing method, the recipients and the number of depicted students. As of 24 September the depicted students had not filed a report (detik and VIVA date the spokesperson's telephone remarks 'Kamis (22/9/2026)', a date that is internally inconsistent) and police appealed to them to do so. According to the parents' account relayed by police, on 15 and 16 September several people took the student who made the images to an empty house and then to a reservoir in Kayu Putih, punched him on the nose, ears and head, kicked his chest and stomach and threatened him with a bladed weapon; police attribute the beating to friends of the depicted students (ANTARA, detik, VIVA), while Kompas.com's 23 September report quotes the same spokesperson as saying the depicted students themselves beat him; he filed an assault report, which police are handling alongside the image case, and the school has held mediation with the students' parents. No student or school is named in the reports.
Core concern High reported severity Involving minors Investigation Opened
AI involvement reported · Causal attribution supported · 8 sources, 1 underlying account · Added 25/09/2026
16 Sept 2026IndiaUnidentified video tool
A Rajasthan social-media influencer visited Haridwar with her family in June 2026 and on 6 June uploaded to Instagram a short video, recorded by relatives, of herself taking a dip in the Ganga at Har Ki Pauri wearing a salwar suit. About two months later she found that the video had been manipulated with AI into an objectionable version showing the same movements with her face and body portrayed 'in a shameful manner'; the fake reel went viral in the week before 20 September and drew objectionable comments and re-sharing. In a public appeal she asked whoever uploaded it to remove it, saying it was a matter of her dignity, that she was mentally very disturbed and had reached a point where she could not step out of her house. She filed a complaint with the cyber-crime police on 16 September 2026; the investigating Rajasthan Police Service officer said they were trying to identify who created and circulated the video and to have it removed, and that identifying the accused would take time. Dainik Bhaskar's English edition reported the case on 20 September in a 'Sunday Big Story' that does not name her.
Core concern Medium reported severity Investigation Opened
AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 1 source · Added 21/09/2026
11 Aug 2026BrazilUnidentified voice-cloning tool
On Monday 10 August 2026 a digital influencer from Picos, in the centre-south of Piauí, began negotiating a car advertised online for sale in Fortaleza (Ceará), where an uncle of his lives, and asked the sellers to take the car to the uncle so he could inspect it. On Tuesday 11 August a contact using a different number but the uncle's photo sent him audio messages in a voice identical to his uncle's, generated with artificial intelligence, saying the car was in good condition and telling him to make the bank transfer. Believing he was speaking to his uncle, he transferred the money; when he then called the uncle's real number he learned he had been defrauded. The loss exceeded R$56,000, money he says he had saved for years. He registered a police report on 11 August; the Piauí property-crimes unit (Depatri) is investigating and he is seeking a refund from the banks. The account is the victim's own, reported by G1 Piauí on 13 August 2026 from his social-media posts and an interview; the police unit did not respond to G1 before publication.
Core concern Medium reported severity Investigation Opened
AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 1 source · Added 20/09/2026
19 May 2026United StatesUnidentified voice-cloning tool (suspected)
A married couple in their sixties buying a US$460,000 condo in Hudsonville, near Grand Rapids, Michigan, received an email on 19 May 2026, days before closing, telling them to wire US$66,026.92 for the down payment and closing costs within 24 hours. The email listed a phone number differing from their loan officer's by two digits, and the husband then received a call confirming the instructions in a voice that sounded just like the loan officer. The couple borrowed from family and other sources and wired the money. The day before closing their real loan officer sent the actual statement; the closing was cancelled hours before signing and the money was gone. The husband now believes the call came from a spoofed number using AI-assisted voice cloning; Tyler Adams of CertifID, which is working with the couple and federal officials, said someone's email in the transaction was probably compromised and that the scammers likely cloned the loan officer's voice from social-media clips. The sender's address had two extra letters ('UnitedsMortgages' instead of 'UnitedMortgage'). Neither the lender nor the loan officer is accused of complicity. The couple later completed the purchase in early June from their mutual fund, reported the loss to the FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center, and describe lasting apprehension and have discussed delaying retirement. CNN reported the case on 15 September 2026; the account the money went to has since closed.
Core concern Medium reported severity Investigation Opened
AI involvement suspected · Causal attribution alleged · 2 sources, 1 underlying account · Added 20/09/2026
10 Jul 2026ChinaUnidentified chatbot
On 10 July 2026 a 67-year-old farmer in Chuzhou, Anhui, who said he had relied on an AI assistant app for more than a year for questions such as when to spray and fertilise, asked it for a weeding and pest-control plan for his sesame field and then for a drone-spraying version. The app produced a 'full plan for 100-mu sesame aerial weeding and pest control' recommending the herbicides haloxyfop-P-methyl (高效氟吡甲禾灵) and fomesafen (氟磺胺草醚) and two insecticides. He sprayed the whole 150-mu field; the next day grass and seedlings had died together. A nearby pesticide dealer and an agronomist told Lizhi News (Jiangsu Broadcasting) that fomesafen is a broadleaf herbicide for soybean fields that must not be sprayed on sesame, and that spraying it across a whole field kills the crop; asked afterwards, the app itself said fomesafen was the cause. The chat window carried a small header line saying AI output may be wrong and should be verified, which he said he had never noticed. The app's customer service said the software has no knowledge base of its own and assembles answers from public web content, and logged the loss for follow-up; no reply or compensation was reported by publication on 1 August 2026. Relays put the loss at about 150,000 yuan; that figure is not in the text of the originating report.
Core concern Medium reported severity Media Coverage
AI involvement supported · Causal attribution supported · 4 sources, 3 underlying accounts · Added 20/09/2026
4 Jan 2026IndiaUnidentified image tool
From 4 January 2026 several employees of a Chennai company received follow requests from unknown Instagram accounts that then circulated defamatory content, including obscene AI-morphed images of a senior woman employee. On her complaint the State Cyber Crime Investigation Centre of the Tamil Nadu police traced the digital footprints, social-media activity and IP logs to a former employee of the same company who had resigned in October 2025 and, according to police, acted out of resentment and previous enmity to threaten, harass and publicly humiliate the victim; she had taken the photographs from the company's official website and morphed them using various artificial-intelligence applications. She was arrested, produced before a magistrate and remanded in judicial custody; the police press release was reported on 4 and 5 February 2026 and the cyber-crime DGP issued a public warning about social-media misuse. The victim alleged the images were circulated to damage her reputation and cause mental distress.
Core concern High reported severity Criminal Charges
AI involvement reported · Causal attribution supported · 3 sources, 1 underlying account · Added 15/06/2026