14 Oct 2026BrazilUnidentified image tool
A 12-year-old girl in Vitória da Conquista, in the south-west of Bahia, Brazil, was threatened from 14 October 2026 by a 15-year-old who said he had intimate images of her and demanded money not to post them on social media. Frightened, she secretly took R$8,300 from money her father kept and handed it over; the suspect then demanded a further R$10,000. According to the Bahia Civil Police, its investigation found that the image used in the threats had been produced with artificial intelligence to simulate intimate content of the girl. On 23 October police identified the 15-year-old and three other adolescents aged 14 to 16 as suspects, recovered R$6,300 and an electric bicycle bought with part of the money, and returned the money to her father. The police opened a juvenile offence procedure and sent it to the Childhood and Youth Court. How police established that the image was AI-made is not disclosed.
Core concern High reported severity Involving minors Investigation Opened
AI involvement reported · Causal attribution supported · 3 sources, 1 underlying account · Added 28/10/2026
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
27 Sept 2026 to 29 Sept 2026IndiaUnidentified video tool
Deccan Herald reports, citing Bengaluru police, that a 23-year-old man lost Rs 1.85 lakh in an alleged sextortion scam. He matched with a woman on a dating app on 27 September 2026 and exchanged numbers; he told police that he then received a WhatsApp video call from her number lasting five to six seconds. Police said he then received an obscene video manipulated using AI and the sender threatened to circulate it unless he paid. Fearing exposure, he borrowed money from a friend and transferred Rs 1.85 lakh to several UPI IDs between 27 and 29 September as the threats continued, a police officer said. Police registered a first information report on his online cybercrime complaint and are trying to trace the suspects. The report does not say how police established that the video was AI-manipulated, and the tool is not named.
Core concern Medium reported severity Investigation Opened
AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 1 source · Added 12/10/2026
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
Oct 2026VietnamUnidentified image and video tool
Thanh Hóa provincial police said on 3 October 2026 that their cybersecurity and high-tech crime division had, since the start of October, received reports from nearly 20 people threatened with extortion using sexual images and videos spliced from their own photos, which senders threatened to publish unless money was transferred. One victim was asked for as much as 1.5 billion dong, and officials, including commune-level leaders, were among the targets. The police release says the material was made with technology; Báo Thanh Hóa, reporting information compiled from the same police division, says the senders used AI and deepfake technology to put victims' faces onto sexual images. No payment, arrest or named victim is reported.
Core concern Medium reported severity Investigation Opened
AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 3 sources, 1 underlying account · Added 04/10/2026
13 Jan 2026IndiaUnidentified image tool
Jhansi police arrested a 27-year-old woman in Prayagraj in September 2026 on charges of editing photos with AI, blackmail and extortion, after the wife of a senior railway officer living in Jhansi filed an FIR on 2 August 2026. According to the complaint as relayed by Aaj Tak, UP Tak, Dainik Bhaskar and Amar Ujala, the woman threatened to circulate objectionable pictures of women in the family, demanded ₹15 lakh and threatened to kill the family, and out of fear the family paid her ₹40,000 in total on different dates between January and June 2026. On 31 July she sent an objectionable image of the officer to his wife's phone, an image police say she made with AI. Aaj Tak places the ₹15 lakh demand after that image; Dainik Bhaskar reports the complaint as dating the demand and a death threat to the woman's visit to the family's government house on 2 June. Police recovered two phones and a laptop, and Amar Ujala reports that police will have the images examined forensically. On 1 October 2026 an Additional Sessions Judge in Jhansi rejected the woman's bail plea. In police custody after her arrest she said the FIR against her was fake. The images were not inspected.
Core concern Medium reported severity Criminal Charges
AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 6 sources, 2 underlying accounts · Added 03/10/2026
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
Sept 2026GermanyUnidentified image tool
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, are not reported. On 28 September 2026 the police said a suspect had been identified: a juvenile who, in the investigation so far, admitted the offences he is accused of. The proceedings are conducted by the Aurich public prosecutor's specialised office for violent, pornographic or otherwise youth-endangering content, and the police give no further details about the suspect to protect him.
Core concern Medium reported severity Involving minors Investigation Opened
AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 5 sources, 2 underlying accounts · Added 27/09/2026
2 Jun 2026 to 4 Jun 2026United KingdomGrok
In early June 2026, social media posts and the AI chatbot Grok falsely identified former Hampshire police constable Christi Hill as one of the 'primary officers shown' in bodycam footage of the December 2025 arrest of Henry Nowak, who died after being stabbed. Hill had left the force in April 2024 — more than a year before the murder — and says the misidentification stems from a national police bravery award photo being misattributed. After 'endless threats' and 'threats of violence' she is hiding in a safe house. BBC Verify separately obtained evidence that serving officer Tristan Parsons, also wrongly accused online, was not in the country at the time; the Home Secretary said a misidentified male officer had to move out of his home. Hampshire Constabulary confirmed an unrelated officer was misidentified and received death threats.
Contextual tracker case High reported severity Media Coverage
AI involvement supported · Causal attribution supported · 2 sources · Added 15/09/2026
26 Aug 2026 to 28 Aug 2026SpainUnidentified Google AI tool (reported)
On 26 August 2026, WhatsApp groups in Ceuta circulated videos and images claiming that Argentine political scientist and activist Flavia Broffoni — who was in Patagonia and had not been to Spain since 2014 — was a woman filmed in Ceuta allegedly giving pepper spray to Moroccan migrants. A screenshot from one group shows that a user cropped the woman's face from the video and asked a Google AI tool who she was, with the word 'activista' as context; the answer identified her as Flavia Broffoni with details of her public profile. Broffoni received death and rape threats. La Nación's own test with the same video produced a different false identification — a student from Quilmes, with her personal data. Google Argentina said it could not confirm the screenshot came from its systems without the original link and had received no formal report. Broffoni is weighing legal action with her lawyer.
Contextual tracker case High reported severity Media Coverage
AI involvement supported · Causal attribution supported · 1 source · Added 15/09/2026