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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
7
Countries with reported events
5
Located 6 of 7 cases · 1 unknown
Languages in checked sources
5
Recorded for 7 of 7 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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7 of 404 published cases

Event date unknownEvent location unknownUnidentified video tool

Mother reportedly sought police help after a teen received a fabricated sexual video and extortion demand

A Newswav creator article relays a mother's account that her teenage son received his photograph and a purported AI-generated sexual video through Telegram, followed by a demand for RM5,800. The mother said the family sought police help and that the boy asked a school contact for advice. The article attributes the AI explanation to the family's account and reported police comments. No payment, precise event location or independently verified generation method is established.

Core concern Medium reported severity Involving minors

AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 1 source · Added 30/09/2026

Sept 2026GermanyUnidentified image tool

Oldenburg, Germany: numerous messages sent through one or more student accounts on Oldenburg schools' email servers contained AI-manipulated deepfake images of children and young people, some of which police say may meet the offence of distributing child or youth sexual abuse material, alongside threats of violence and calls to self-harm; students and parents reported it and police are investigating (September 2026)

The Oldenburg-Stadt police inspectorate said on 22 September 2026 that in the preceding days numerous messages had been sent through one or more student accounts on the email servers of Oldenburg schools. The messages contained, among other things, deepfakes (manipulated depictions of children and young people); on an initial assessment some of these could constitute the offence of distributing child or youth sexual abuse material, and some messages contained threats of violence and calls for recipients to harm themselves. According to dpa, students and parents reported the incidents to the police, and dpa, reporting a police spokesman, describes the images as made with artificial intelligence (the written police statement calls them deepfakes, manipulated depictions, without naming AI). Investigators are examining whether unknown persons gained unauthorised access to the accounts; first digital traces were secured and the police are working with the affected schools. RND reports that the accounts were on the IServ school platform, whose provider said it had no access to the messages and believed the incident was limited to Oldenburg. The exact number of schools (the police refer to 'the affected schools', plural), messages, depicted children and recipients, and who created the images, are not reported.

Core concern Medium reported severity Involving minors Investigation Opened

AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 4 sources, 2 underlying accounts · Added 27/09/2026

Event date unknownIndiaUnidentified video tool

Bansdih, Ballia (Uttar Pradesh): a father reports that a local youth made a fake Instagram account in his 17-year-old daughter's name and an AI-generated obscene video from her photograph, sent it to her classmates, friends and relatives, and threatened to kill the family when they objected; police register a case under the IT Act (22-23 September 2026)

The father of a 17-year-old Class 12 student in Bansdih, Ballia district, Uttar Pradesh, gave the Bansdih police a written complaint that a young man from the town, a former schoolmate who had been expelled from the school and bore a grudge against the family, took screenshots of his daughter's social-media account, created a fake Instagram ID in her name with a matching photograph, used AI technology to make an obscene video from her photo and circulated it to her classmates, friends and relatives; the complaint says the youth had earlier made two fake accounts using her and her mother's photographs and threatened to kill the whole family and to spread the video further when they objected (Dainik Bhaskar, Hindustan). The father submitted screenshots of the fake account and his daughter's mark-sheet as proof of her age. The station house officer said a case had been ordered registered and the investigation begun; Jagran reports the case under the Information Technology Act. The reports give no dates for the fake accounts, the video or its circulation; September 2026 is the month of the complaint (about 21-22 September) and of the circulation and threats the family describes as continuing, so the event date is recorded as unknown. The family is described as frightened. No arrest is reported.

Core concern High reported severity Involving minors Investigation Opened

AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 4 sources · Added 26/09/2026

15 Sept 2026 to 16 Sept 2026IndonesiaUnidentified image tool

East Jakarta: police confirm a grade-9 student at a state junior high school edited several female schoolmates' photographs with AI into indecent images that circulated as WhatsApp stickers; a social-media post said about 200 images were sold; the student was later beaten by schoolmates angry at the images (police statements differ on whether the depicted students or their friends did so) and both matters are under police investigation (Kompas, ANTARA, detik, VIVA, Media Indonesia, 23-24 September 2026)

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

1 Oct 2024SwitzerlandChatGPT

Zurich-Oerlikon, Switzerland: a student who researched killing methods, anatomy and where to find children with ChatGPT stabbed three five-year-olds walking to their daycare; sentenced on 18 September 2026 to 15 years for multiple attempted murder

At midday on 1 October 2024 a Chinese master's student, then 23, attacked a group of five-year-old kindergarten children walking with a daycare worker to their after-school Hort near Berninaplatz in Zurich-Oerlikon with a kitchen knife. Two boys suffered life-threatening neck and chest wounds (one had the jugular vein severed, one the pericardium and aorta cut); a third was wounded in the ear and the shoulder or lung. The daycare worker held the attacker's arms until he dropped the knife. The indictment and the court's oral reasoning, as reported by NZZ, Keystone-SDA/ATS and CH Media, describe weeks of preparation from summer 2024: he discussed ways of killing and their legal consequences with ChatGPT, studied anatomy, bought raw beef to practise stabbing, and used ChatGPT to find out where and when children could be encountered in Zurich. No source quotes the prompts or ChatGPT's replies. On 18 September 2026 the Zurich District Court convicted him of multiple attempted murder and imposed 15 years' imprisonment, treatment during custody, a 15-year expulsion from Switzerland and CHF 106,000 in moral damages to the three boys; it accepted that he was psychotic but found diminished, not absent, criminal responsibility. His lawyer announced an appeal. The parents of one boy described nightmares, self-blame and scars 23 months on.

Core concern High reported severity Involving minors Criminal Charges

AI involvement supported · Causal attribution unclear · 7 sources, 5 underlying accounts · Added 19/09/2026

14 May 2026IndiaUnidentified image tool

Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh: a 17-year-old Class 11 student died by hanging at home on 14 May 2026; her family told police that two young men had stalked her and blackmailed her with obscene images made from her social-media photographs with AI tools

On the night of Thursday 14 May 2026 a 17-year-old Class 11 student was found hanging in her room at the family home in Bhopal's Aishbagh area after sending her younger sister out on a pretext; relatives brought her down but she had died. Her family told the Times of India and Dainik Bhaskar that two young men (both from the Chhola area according to the Times of India; one from Chhola and one from her neighbourhood according to Dainik Bhaskar) had harassed her for weeks, stalked her to and from school, pressured her to meet them, and threatened to circulate obscene images of her that they had made with AI tools from photographs taken from her social-media accounts; the family said she had never met them in person; they also told Dainik Bhaskar that she had told her parents, that the men had misbehaved with her father when the family tried to reason with them, and that fear of social defamation had kept them from going to the police earlier. The Aishbagh police station in-charge said an unnatural-death case had been registered, no suicide note was found, the family's statements were being recorded and further action would follow; investigators were expected to examine her phone and social-media accounts. After the post-mortem on 15 May relatives took the body to the police station and demanded action against the accused. No arrest or later development was found in this review.

Core concern Critical reported severity Involving minors Investigation Opened

AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 3 sources, 2 underlying accounts · Added 15/06/2026

27 Feb 2025 to 28 Feb 2025United StatesUnidentified image tool

Kentucky: Elijah Heacock, 16, died by suicide after a sextortion demand backed by AI-generated nude images of him

Elijah Heacock, a 16-year-old Caverna High School student in Barren County, Kentucky, died by suicide on 28 February 2025. Investigators searching his phone found AI-generated images of him, some sexually explicit, that an anonymous extortionist had sent with a demand for $3,000 and a threat to share them with his family and friends; his parents say he sent a small partial payment and was told it was 'not enough'. The Barren County Sheriff's Office escalated the case to the FBI, which was still investigating in the inspected reports; no arrest has been reported. His parents have campaigned publicly, Kentucky made sextortion a felony in March 2025, and the family supported the federal Take It Down Act.

Core concern Critical reported severity Involving minors Investigation Opened

AI involvement supported · Causal attribution supported · 4 sources · Added 09/03/2026

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.