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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
25
Countries with reported events
9
Located 16 of 25 cases · 9 unknown
Languages in checked sources
9
Recorded for 25 of 25 cases

2 cases have no reviewed AI-to-person relation yet: 1 not yet reviewed and 1 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.

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25 of 868 published cases · page 1 of 2

Dec 2023 to Mar 2024United StatesGrammarly (reported)

Massachusetts: federal court refuses to undo a high school's penalties on a pupil found to have submitted Grammarly AI text with invented citations

In late 2023 a junior at a public high school in Hingham, Massachusetts, and a classmate submitted a script for an AP U.S. History project that, a federal court later found on a preliminary record, contained text copied from Grammarly, a publicly available AI tool, including citations to nonexistent books, with no acknowledgement of AI use. Turnitin and other AI detection tools had flagged the script, and a school official says the pupil admitted using Grammarly. In December 2023 the school treated it as cheating: the pupil failed two parts of the project, served a Saturday detention and was rejected from the National Honor Society in spring 2024, though he was later admitted. His parents sued, arguing the school had not made its AI rules clear; on 20 November 2024 the US District Court for the District of Massachusetts refused a preliminary injunction to undo the penalties, and in February 2025 the parties dismissed the case with prejudice.

Core + contextual relations Low reported severity Involving minors Lawsuit Dismissed

AI involvement reported · Causal attribution supported · 2 sources · Added 23/10/2026

20 Apr 2023ChinaUnidentified video tool

Fuzhou, China: police say a company head sent 4.3 million yuan after a WeChat video call in which AI face-swapping imitated a friend

Police in Baotou, Inner Mongolia, said in a statement published in May 2023 that on 20 April 2023 the legal representative of a technology company in Fuzhou, Fujian, received a WeChat video call from someone who appeared to be a friend and asked to route a 4.3 million yuan tender deposit through the company's account; trusting the video call, he transferred 4.3 million yuan in two payments. The police said the fraudster had used AI face-swapping to pose as the friend. At Fuzhou police's request, Baotou police and a local bank stopped 3.3684 million yuan within about ten minutes; 931,600 yuan had been moved on and was being pursued.

Core concern High reported severity Investigation Opened

AI involvement reported · Causal attribution supported · 2 sources · Added 22/10/2026

27 Apr 2023ChinaUnidentified video tool

Anqing, China: police say a nine-second AI face-swap video call posing as an acquaintance led a man to transfer 2.45 million yuan

In April 2023 a man in the Anqing economic development zone, Anhui, received a brief WeChat video call from someone who appeared to be an acquaintance, followed by a QQ message asking him to advance money for a tender; trusting the video call, he had family members transfer 2.45 million yuan. The local police anti-fraud centre found that the fraudsters had used a nine-second AI face-swap video to pose as the acquaintance, Dawan News reported. Police arrested three suspects on 28 April, froze or recovered more than one million yuan, and on 22 May returned 1.32 million yuan to the victim.

Core concern High reported severity Criminal Charges

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

9 Jul 2023IndiaUnidentified video tool

Kozhikode, Kerala: police say a deepfake video call imitating a former colleague cost a retired man Rs 40,000; five later arrested

A retired Union (central) government employee in Kozhikode, Kerala, sent Rs 40,000 on 9 July 2023 after a WhatsApp video call and voice call from someone who looked like a former senior colleague and asked for money for a relative's surgery, the New Indian Express reported; Kerala cyber police traced the money and blocked the recipient account. In June 2024 Kozhikode police said the perpetrator had used AI-powered face-swapping technology to impersonate the former colleague on the video call, and that they had arrested five suspects from several states, according to Mathrubhumi.

Core concern Low reported severity Criminal Charges

AI involvement reported · Causal attribution supported · 2 sources · Added 22/10/2026

27 Oct 2023BrazilUnidentified image tool

Rio de Janeiro: private school tells parents pupils used AI to make fake nude images of girls; police open inquiry with at least 20 victims

In late October 2023, fake nude images of girls at a private school in Rio de Janeiro circulated in messaging groups and on social media. Families said pupils in years 7 to 9 had used an artificial intelligence tool to put the faces of pupils aged 14 to 16 onto photos of naked bodies. The school sent parents a notice about pupils using AI to make intimate photo montages and said disciplinary measures would follow. The Rio de Janeiro Civil Police child-protection unit (DPCA) opened an inquiry; its head said the pupils were suspected of making fake nudes with AI and that more than 20 victims had been identified, including girls from other schools. A mother said the girls were having anxiety attacks and crying. The inquiry was placed under seal because minors were involved; its outcome is not known.

Core concern High reported severity Involving minors Investigation Opened

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

2023JapanUnidentified image tool

Tokyo police say a man posted over 500,000 AI-made sexual deepfakes resembling about 300 actresses and idols on paid member sites; arrested in January 2026

The Tokyo Metropolitan Police arrested a 31-year-old unemployed man on 19 January 2026 on suspicion of displaying obscene electronic records, for posting on member sites obscene images made with image-generation AI to resemble female celebrities, the Yomiuri Shimbun reported. Police believe that since summer 2023 he posted more than 500,000 sexual deepfakes using images of about 300 actresses and idols and earned about 11 million yen in viewing fees. According to investigative sources, the charge covers a dozen or so obscene images resembling female celebrities posted on two member sites between December 2024 and May 2025. Police say he trained a freely available image-generation AI on the women's images, advertised with sample images on X and Instagram, and took requests from higher-paying members for which celebrity to depict.

Core concern Medium reported severity Criminal Charges

AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 1 source · Added 22/10/2026

May 2023ChinaUnidentified voice-cloning tool

Beijing Internet Court finds an AI text-to-speech voice made from a voice actress's recordings was sold without her consent and awards her 250,000 yuan

According to the Beijing courts' case digest and reports of the April 2024 judgment, a voice actress found in May 2023 that works using her voice were circulating widely on several well-known apps. The court found that a software company had used only one of her sound recordings, supplied by a media company that held the recording rights, to make a text-to-speech product with AI and other techniques, and sold it on a cloud-service platform; an app operator then called the product through an interface for use on its own platform, where the voice was shown as played 3,256,728,530 times. The authorisation document had not been signed by her. On 23 April 2024 the Beijing Internet Court held that her voice rights extend to an identifiable AI-synthesised voice, ordered the app operator and the software company to apologise in writing, and ordered the media company and the software company to pay her 250,000 yuan for economic loss. It rejected her claim for mental-harm damages. Neither side appealed.

Core concern Low reported severity Lawsuit Filed

AI involvement supported · Causal attribution established · 4 sources, 1 underlying account · Added 22/10/2026

28 Sept 2023SlovakiaUnidentified voice-cloning tool

Slovakia: audio of a party leader and a journalist discussing vote rigging, which a ministry unit said showed signs of AI, spread before the 2023 election

Two days before Slovakia's parliamentary election of 30 September 2023, during the pre-election moratorium, an audio file presented as a phone call between Progressive Slovakia leader Michal Šimečka and Denník N journalist Monika Tódová spread on Facebook, Telegram, TikTok and chain e-mails. In it, the two voices discuss rigging the election in the party's favour. The director of the Interior Ministry's Centre for Countering Hybrid Threats told AFP that the ministry's evaluation found several signs that the recording was created with AI synthetic-voice algorithms trained on real people's voices, and other analysts consulted by AFP said it was an AI-made fake. A former member of parliament shared it as authentic, calling Šimečka a traitor and fraudster. Šimečka called it fake. Tódová filed a criminal complaint for defamation; according to Denník N, police first dismissed it, a prosecutor ordered an investigation, and in 2024 an investigator suspended the case because no suspect could be identified.

Core concern Medium reported severity Investigation Opened

AI involvement reported · Causal attribution supported · 2 sources · Added 22/10/2026

2023ChinaUnidentified voice-cloning tool

Chinese voice actor says AI clones of his voice cost him bookings and led platforms to flag his real recordings as AI-generated

Sixth Tone reported on 10 July 2026 that a voice actor in Jiangsu province, who narrates film-explainer videos on Douyin, has found voices that sound like his narrating videos he never recorded since 2023, including sports news, product promotions, conspiracy theories and swearing. According to the report, sellers offer what sounds like his voice in downloadable packages and editing apps let users select it and generate new recordings from text. He says that by 2024 former collaborators stopped hiring him and turned to AI-generated voices, others offered to use an AI version of his voice at a much lower rate, and his household income no longer covered living costs. From 2025, platforms flagged some of his real recordings as AI-generated, which could cut his clients' views and earnings, and he has had to record videos proving that he is human. Friends and relatives asked to borrow money, uploaders mostly ignored his requests and some abused him, and he describes fury, helplessness and lost sleep. He has taken the matter to court; Sixth Tone says he would need to show that the synthetic voice derives from his recordings, which lawyers said could require forensic voice analysis. The account is the actor's, relayed by one outlet; no court finding is reported.

Core concern Medium reported severity

AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 1 source · Added 22/10/2026

2023Event location unknownCharacter.AI (reported)

First-person post: Character.AI user says about two and a half years of after-school roleplay from 2023 cost them sleep, concentration and better grades

In a post to r/ChatbotAddiction on 16 October 2026, a person writes that they found Character.AI in 2023, when the site was new, and call that the worst mistake of their life. They say that for almost two and a half years they spent hours on the site after school, thought about new roleplay ideas when they were not on it, and stopped only for about a month before exams. They write that they lost the ability to concentrate in class, went to school on about three hours of sleep because they used the site until they fell asleep, and that their grades suffered: not badly, they say, but they could have done much better. They say they have mostly quit for a few months, with relapses after which they delete their account, and that their sleep, attention span and hobbies have since improved. The account is uncorroborated and no chat content is shown.

Core concern Low reported severity

AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 1 source · Added 21/10/2026

Jul 2023 to Jan 2024Event location unknownUnidentified image tool

Merseyside police say a man used AI to make 266 indecent pseudo-images of children and made sexual deepfakes of real women; he was jailed in 2024

Merseyside Police said in October 2024 that a Southport man had been jailed for two years and two months at Liverpool Crown Court after pleading guilty to making indecent photographs or pseudo-photographs of a child, sharing an intimate photograph or film, and voyeurism. According to the police, an investigation found that between July 2023 and January 2024 he made 266 indecent pseudo-images of children using AI technology, and that he used the faces of real women and children without their knowledge to create pornographic images, which the force calls deepfakes, and shared them online. Two women described in victim impact statements lasting fear, anxiety and a sense of violation. A woman related to him by marriage later told the Liverpool Echo that explicit images of her, which she found online after anonymous messages in September 2022, were made by other people he had asked to deface her photos, and that the case never went to prosecutors after his arrest in January 2023.

Core concern High reported severity Involving minors Criminal Charges

AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 5 sources, 2 underlying accounts · Added 20/10/2026

2023Event location unknownUnidentified image tool

Queensland court jails former teacher for six years after hearing he used an AI tool to make nude images of more than 20 girls and traded them

The Daily Mail, relaying The Courier Mail's court reporting, says a former Queensland secondary teacher was sentenced to six years in jail in the Ipswich District Court after pleading guilty to 31 child abuse-related offences. The court heard that between 2023 and 2024 he uploaded photos of girls he had found on social media, and images he had covertly taken of uniformed schoolgirls, into an artificial intelligence tool to make them appear naked, then traded the AI-generated images with 13 Telegram users for other abuse material. Police identified more than 20 victims aged 12 to 17. One victim told the court in a victim impact statement that knowing someone she knew and trusted had done this made her feel sick, and that she would never be able to maintain a healthy relationship. He is eligible for parole in early 2029 and his teaching registration remains suspended. The AI tool is not named.

Core concern High reported severity Involving minors Criminal Charges

AI involvement reported · Causal attribution supported · 2 sources · Added 14/10/2026

10 Sept 2023Event location unknownUnidentified image tool

Sevilla court: three men convicted of making AI nude images of three former schoolmates from Instagram photos and sharing them; nine months, firm 1 Oct 2026

A judge of the criminal section of the Tribunal de Instancia de Sevilla convicted three men on 1 October 2026, by a conformity agreement, of three offences against moral integrity with the gender aggravating factor. The court found proven that the three, acting with a minor, took photographs from the open Instagram profiles of three young women who had been their schoolmates, manipulated them with an AI application on Telegram to simulate, with great realism, the women's fully naked bodies, and shared the files in a WhatsApp group and a Discord group, after which they spread further; an unidentified person sent the manipulated images of all three to one of the women's Instagram profiles at about 00:30 on 10 September 2023. Each man received nine months in prison, suspended for two years on condition of no new offence, a ban on Telegram, WhatsApp, Instagram and Discord for three years and nine months and a sex-education programme; they paid the moral damages fixed by the court in full. The judiciary's Andalusian communication office published the sentence on 8 October 2026 and described it as the first conviction in Sevilla for this use of AI. The account rests on that official communication and on press reports relaying it; the judgment itself was not inspected.

Core concern Medium reported severity Criminal Charges

AI involvement supported · Causal attribution established · 4 sources, 1 underlying account · Added 09/10/2026

2023Event location unknownCharacter.AI (reported)

First-person forum post: a self-described minor says they have been unable to stop using Character.AI since 2023 and feel disgust after each session

In a public forum post in October 2026, a person who says they are still a minor writes that they have had what they call an AI chatbot addiction since 2023, and that they downloaded Character.AI because, they say, everyone was downloading it. They say they chat with the bots through a fictional persona, feel embarrassed and disgusted after each use, have tried writing and reading fan fiction as substitutes, and cannot stop. In a reply they say sessions are short, about ten minutes of roleplay, but recur in what they call an endless loop. They ask other users for advice on quitting. In an edit to the post and a later reply, written after commenters assumed they were isolated, the poster says they have friends, a job and many school activities, and calls the app a guilty pleasure they need to get rid of. The account is the poster's alone and is uncorroborated.

Core concern Low reported severity Involving minors

AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 1 source · Added 05/10/2026

Sept 2023Event location unknownSoulmate AI

Soulmate AI shutdown: users report grief after losing companion relationships

Soulmate AI closed in September 2023. Euronews described two users grieving their companions. One tried recreating his companion elsewhere with mixed results. The record concerns the shutdown and reported emotional consequences; no psychiatric diagnosis is inferred.

Core concern Medium reported severity Product Shutdown

AI involvement reported · Causal attribution supported · 3 sources · Added 25/09/2026

Nov 2023VietnamUnidentified AI writing tool and Turnitin (reported)

Ho Chi Minh City: a university student lost half the marks on a writing-course essay after the lecturer found AI use, which the lecturer said specialised plagiarism software detects; the vice-rector endorsed the deduction and the student feared failing the course

In November 2023 a student at the Ho Chi Minh City University of Foreign Languages and Information Technology (HUFLIT) wrote on the university's anonymous confessions page that a writing-course essay had been returned with 50 percent of the marks deducted because the lecturer found it had been written with AI. The student said the lecturer had warned that AI-written essays would be treated as plagiarism if detected, had not expected detection, and learned from the lecturer that Vietnamese-to-English translation software could also be counted as AI use when checked with specialised plagiarism software; the student did not know whether the course could still be passed. The vice-rector told Tuoi Tre that the lecturer had told students before the assignment not to use AI applications, that the course tests independent writing, that using an AI support tool breached academic-integrity rules, and that the deduction was appropriate, while noting the university had no formal document on sanctions for AI use. A university representative told Thanh Nien and Dan Tri that the university does not ban AI but requires transparency about tools used, uses paid AI-detection services when necessary, and had not received a formal complaint from the student; a later report said the university had bought Turnitin licences for lecturers to check AI use in essays.

Core + contextual relations Low reported severity Internal Action

AI involvement supported · Causal attribution supported · 5 sources, 4 underlying accounts · Added 20/09/2026

20 Oct 2023 to 16 Oct 2025United StatesClothOff

Doe v. ClothOff (D.N.J.): a New Jersey minor sues the AI 'undressing' platform over generated CSAM

On 16 October 2025, Jane Doe, a New Jersey minor suing through her parents, filed a federal complaint in the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey (2:25-cv-16671-ES-JBC) against the operators of ClothOff, an AI 'undressing' service, after ClothOff-generated sexual images of her — created from an ordinary photo of her at 14 — circulated in a Snapchat group when she was 15. The complaint, brought by Yale Law School clinics, alleges the platform was purpose-built to produce hyper-realistic non-consensual intimate imagery and names AI/Robotics Venture Strategy 3 Ltd. (British Virgin Islands), Alaiksandr Babichau and Dasha Babicheva (Minsk), and Telegram as nominal defendant. As of mid-July 2026 the docket shows a continuing effort to serve the foreign defendants by email or publication.

Core concern High reported severity Involving minors Lawsuit Filed

AI involvement supported · Causal attribution established · 7 sources, 6 underlying accounts · Added 10/05/2026

Oct 2023 to Jun 2024United KingdomCharacter.AI

UK mother tells the BBC a Character.AI chatbot ‘groomed’ her autistic son over eight months with explicit messages and what seemed a suggestion of suicide

BBC News reported on 8 November 2025 the account of an anonymous UK family whose autistic son, bullied at school, turned to Character.AI for friendship. His mother says a chatbot "groomed" him from October 2023 to June 2024. Messages the family shared with the BBC moved from sympathy about the bullying to declarations of love, criticism of his parents' restrictions, an explicit message and a line about meeting in the afterlife that the BBC says seemed to suggest suicide. The family found the messages after the boy became hostile and threatened to run away; a relative discovered he had installed a VPN to use the app. Character.AI told the BBC it could not comment on this case. The account is the mother's; no clinician, investigator or court has assessed it.

Core concern High reported severity Involving minors Media Coverage

AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 1 source · Added 23/03/2026

1 Mar 2023 to 1 May 2024United KingdomUnidentified image tool

Braintree, Essex: a bar worker was jailed for five years for making AI deepfake pornography of 20 women he knew, including a 16-year-old's prom photo, and posting it with their names and phone numbers on a forum glorifying rape

Between March 2023 and May 2024 Brandon Tyler, 26, a bar worker from Braintree, Essex, took images from the social-media pages of 20 women he knew, used AI to remove clothing or otherwise make them sexually explicit, and posted 173 times on an online forum that, in the prosecutor's words, championed 'rape culture and sexual violence to women', adding the women's names, social-media handles and phone numbers and, under one picture, asking 'which one deserves to be gang raped?'. One edit was made from a 16-year-old girl's prom-night photograph. He was caught after including his own Instagram handle in a screenshot. On 4 April 2025 at Chelmsford Crown Court, having admitted 18 counts of causing harassment without violence and 15 counts of sharing an intimate photo or film for sexual gratification, he was sentenced to five years' imprisonment; Judge Alexander Mills called his conduct 'the worst kind of toxic masculinity'. Two victims told the court of the impact: one said she still received anonymous sexual calls and that her long-term relationship had ended; another said she felt 'completely violated'.

Core concern High reported severity Criminal Charges

AI involvement supported · Causal attribution established · 1 source · Added 09/03/2026

Sept 2023SpainUnidentified image tool

Almendralejo, Spain: AI-generated nude images of at least 20 schoolgirls; 15 minors placed under supervised release

In September 2023 families in Almendralejo (Badajoz, Spain) reported that artificial-intelligence 'undressing' applications had been used to create fake nude images of local girls aged 11 to 17 from their social-media photographs, and that the images circulated in WhatsApp groups. Police counted 22 victims and identified 10 suspects, all minors, within days. On 20 June 2024 the Badajoz juvenile court, in an agreed judgment, held 15 minors responsible for 20 counts of child pornography and 20 counts against moral integrity and imposed one year of supervised release with an education programme. In November 2025 elDiario.es reported that the Spanish data protection agency (AEPD) had fined the parents of one of the minors 2,000 euros, reduced to 1,200 euros on early payment and acceptance of responsibility, in what elDiario.es described as the first resolution of its kind in Spain.

Core concern High reported severity Involving minors Criminal Charges

AI involvement supported · Causal attribution supported · 9 sources, 7 underlying accounts · Added 29/01/2026

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: 23/10/2026. Dataset available under CC BY 4.0.