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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
6
Countries with reported events
3
Located 3 of 6 cases · 3 unknown
Languages in checked sources
3
Recorded for 6 of 6 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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6 of 1099 published cases

2025IndonesiaDreamFace and dupdub (reported)

Surabaya court jails two over AI deepfake videos of East Java Governor Khofifah offering cheap motorbikes that police say defrauded about 100 people

East Java regional police (Polda Jatim) said on 28 April 2025 that they had arrested three suspects from Pangandaran, West Java, after the provincial communications office reported TikTok videos in which Governor Khofifah Indar Parawansa appeared to offer motorbikes for Rp500,000. According to the police, the videos were manipulated with AI deepfake technology, one suspect told investigators that the governor's video had been edited with AI, and people who answered the videos contacted a WhatsApp number and transferred money; police estimated about 100 victims in four provinces and Rp87.6 million taken over three months. The indictment read at the Surabaya District Court on 15 October 2025, as reported by Harian Disway, says the video was edited with the DreamFace app and dupdub.com so that the governor's lip movements and voice looked real, and gives the proceeds as Rp79.6 million. Suara Publik reported on 16 December 2025 that the court found two defendants guilty of jointly manipulating electronic information and sentenced each to three years in prison and a Rp500 million fine; the third suspect's case file was separate.

Core concern Low reported severity Criminal Charges

AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 4 sources, 3 underlying accounts · Added 01/11/2026

1 Jul 2025 to 18 Jul 2025IndiaUnidentified video tool

Mumbai police say ad agency staff let fraudsters run deepfake videos of a stock market analyst as investment ads; four arrested

Mumbai's West Region cyber police arrested four employees of Valueleaf, a Bengaluru-based digital advertising company, in October 2025, saying they had given Chinese fraudsters access to the company's Meta advertising IDs, which were used to run Facebook and Instagram ads with deepfake videos of stock market analysts and business news anchors. The case began with a complaint from a SEBI-registered research analyst who appears on television and found deepfake videos of himself in the ads; according to the complaint, the videos were created from his appearances on business news channels. Police say viewers who clicked were added to WhatsApp groups offering share tips, invested through fake trading apps, were shown large profits and could not withdraw their money; the deputy commissioner said several people were cheated and several cases registered. A police official said Meta had flagged the videos as deepfakes. Lokmat Times reports that the videos circulated from 1 to 18 July 2025 before Meta removed them. Police say the company received about Rs 3 crore. The four were booked for offences including cheating by personation and forgery and remanded in police custody; they reportedly said they did not know their services were being used for fraud. The analyst is not named in the sources, and how the videos were made is not described.

Core concern Medium reported severity Criminal Charges

AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 5 sources, 1 underlying account · Added 31/10/2026

2025Event location unknownUnidentified image and video tool

Sweden: Economic Crime Authority says pump-and-dump share frauds on small savers used AI; an investor describes AI-made adverts of himself

In October 2025 Swedish media, citing Finansinspektionen, reported that more than 5,000 small savers had lost about half a billion kronor that year in pump-and-dump share frauds, and a Finansinspektionen official said some had lost several million kronor. An investigator at the Economic Crime Authority told TT that the frauds, run from abroad, use a refined method with the latest AI technology. TV4 described the usual pattern as a Facebook tip in which a well-known finance profile appears to recommend a safe investment, leading to a WhatsApp group. The investor Günter Mårder said 30 to 40 adverts and AI-produced films showed him speaking, that about 15 to 20 finance profiles had been used, and that his whole summer went on handling questions. Sveriges Radio reported that the financial journalist Gabriel Mellqvist's identity had been used and that he was frustrated at the damage to his professional reputation and at Meta's inaction. The authority does not say how the AI use was established, and the savers figure is not tied to the AI adverts.

Core concern Medium reported severity Investigation Opened

AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 6 sources, 4 underlying accounts · Added 17/10/2026

Mar 2025Event location unknownUnidentified video tool

Economist David Rosenberg reports impersonation in Facebook and Instagram ads that directed investors to a WhatsApp investment scam

Economist David Rosenberg told The Globe and Mail (18 June 2025) that ads on Facebook and Instagram since March 2025 promoted a fake investment program listing him as its administrator and redirected people to a WhatsApp group. The Globe reported that one investor interviewed estimated losing $16,000, another said she lost $500,000 in a week, and a third alleged losing $450,000 in life savings. Rosenberg told BNN Bloomberg on 7 July 2025 that the scammers used a fake AI voice and video of him, and a Globe column of 17 July 2025 described a deepfake video advert. Losses are self-reported and unverified. The AI characterisation comes from Rosenberg and a July Globe column, and the June Globe article on the investors does not mention AI. A Toronto police detective said no victim had reported to police.

Core concern Medium reported severity

AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 4 sources, 3 underlying accounts · Added 29/09/2026

Mar 2025Event location unknownUnidentified video tool

Analyst Michael Hewson reportedly impersonated in AI-generated video advert directing users to WhatsApp investment group

City AM (dated 21 March 2025) reported that a fake video using AI to pose as Michael Hewson, host of the Good Money Guide Podcast, circulated on Facebook and Instagram that week and directed users to a WhatsApp group with promises of undervalued investments. Hewson said on X that the advert had nothing to do with Hewson, that it had been reported and was being taken up with Meta, and that Hewson was very angry. A Good Money Guide article dated 3 June 2025 (which may describe the same advert or a later one) reported that its report to Meta had not led to removal three days later and that the sponsored post had been viewed 29,000 times. No person is reported to have joined the group or lost money.

Core concern Low reported severity

AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 2 sources, 1 underlying account · Added 29/09/2026

2025United StatesUnidentified website tool

Georgia: a retired couple lost about $800,000 in a crypto scam that police said used an AI-generated "ghost site" to fake what the husband saw on screen (2025)

A retired couple in Gwinnett County, Georgia, told FOX 5 Atlanta and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution in June 2025 that they had lost about $800,000 ($802,000 per the AJC), their life savings, in a cryptocurrency scam that began when a stranger contacted the husband on WhatsApp and encouraged him to trade through a mobile app. He traded and withdrew small amounts before investing more, and discovered the fraud when he could not withdraw and called 911. According to FOX 5, Gwinnett County police explained that the app was real but the scammers had created an AI-generated "ghost site" that manipulated what he saw on the screen; the husband said police identified that what he was seeing on the wallet was not there. The 74-year-old said he felt sick and ashamed; the couple's children started a fundraiser for day-to-day expenses, and police said such funds are rarely recovered. The tool is not described; the AI element appears in no independently reported source (a Cobb County government page of January 2026 repeats FOX 5's summary, and the AJC's legible text does not mention AI).

Core concern High reported severity Investigation Opened

AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 2 sources · Added 29/09/2026

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: 04/11/2026. Dataset available under CC BY 4.0.