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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
305
Countries with reported events
43
Located 172 of 305 cases · 133 unknown
Languages in checked sources
40
Recorded for 305 of 305 cases

65 cases have no reviewed AI-to-person relation yet: 1 not yet reviewed and 64 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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305 of 1099 published cases · page 1 of 16

Event date unknownColombiaGemini (reported)

Travel writer says a Gemini answer said no Honduras visa was needed; the airline refused the onward boarding pass and the changes cost hundreds of dollars

In a first-person article published by Upgraded Points on 6 August 2026, a travel writer says that on the morning of a flight from Medellin, Colombia, to Honduras they searched in Chrome whether a visa was needed and a message from Google's Gemini AI said U.K. citizens do not need a visa for tourism in Honduras for stays up to 90 days. They took the answer without checking the U.K. government site. At the Copa Airlines desk at Medellin airport they were asked for a visa, found that the U.K. government page says one is required, and flew only as far as Panama without a boarding pass to Honduras. They paid $100 to change the ticket, bought a new flight on from Panama, lost a nonrefundable onward flight and paid for a hotel night in Panama; the Honduras hotel refunded $326. The U.K. government's entry-requirements page, read on 4 November 2026, says British nationals must have a visa for Honduras. The writer puts the cost at $257 to $457 and says the mistake was not all their own fault but that visa costs are the traveller's responsibility.

Core concern Low reported severity

AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 2 sources · Added 04/11/2026

Dec 2024Thailand, CambodiaUnidentified video tool

Thai police say call-centre gang used AI to pose as officers on video calls; an actress lost 4 million baht and a court later ordered her bank to pay part

Thailand's Central Investigation Bureau said in February 2025 that two arrested members of a call-scam centre in Poipet, Cambodia, had used artificial intelligence technology to pretend to be police officers, and that the gang had tricked 163 people, including a Thai-British actress who lost 4 million baht. VnExpress, citing the South China Morning Post, reports that the actress received a video call in December 2024 from a man posing as a Department of Special Investigation official who kept her on the call while she made three transfers, and that police later said the network used AI to swap the callers' faces during video calls. The Cyber Crime Investigation Bureau said in June 2025 that the Criminal Court had sentenced four people in her case, one of them for posing as a police officer on video calls with her, and ordered them to repay the 4 million baht. On 8 July 2026 the Civil Court ordered Kasikornbank to pay 1 million baht plus interest after ruling that the bank failed to flag her after-midnight transfers. The police have not described how they established that AI was used.

Core concern Medium reported severity Criminal Charges

AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 3 sources · Added 02/11/2026

25 Sept 2025NetherlandsChatGPT (reported)

Dutch Council of State annuls master's student's thesis fraud sanction, finding an AI tool had garbled his own reference list

A master's student at the University of Groningen used an AI tool while preparing the reference list of his thesis. The examiner found many non-existent references, and on 25 September 2025 the Faculty of Economics and Business exam board declared all his work for the thesis course invalid for fraud, excluded him from the course for one year and told him he no longer qualified for a cum laude judgment. The university's examination appeals board upheld this on 31 March 2026. The student said he had only used an AI tool to categorise sources, giving it his existing reference list as input. On 12 August 2026 the Administrative Jurisdiction Division of the Council of State found that the references in the thesis text led to existing, relevant sources, that the AI had evidently garbled the student's own reference list, and that only carelessness, not fraud, had been shown. It annulled both decisions and ordered the thesis to be assessed again.

Core concern Medium reported severity

AI involvement supported · Causal attribution supported · 1 source · Added 02/11/2026

Event date unknownBrazilUnidentified image tool

Brazilian court convicts man who admitted using AI to make a fake nude image of a co-worker from her Instagram photos and sharing it at work

A first-instance criminal court in São Paulo state convicted a man who worked at a health facility of distributing a nude image without consent (article 218-C of the Penal Code), according to a report by Diário de Justiça of the sentence released on 31 July 2026. The sentence records that a woman who worked at the same facility learned on 30 May 2025, in a call from the head nurse, that an intimate image attributed to her was circulating among staff, and recognised it as an AI montage made from clothed photos she had posted on Instagram; the defendant followed her account. In his testimony he admitted using artificial intelligence to produce a nude image of her, saying he meant to defend her against a remark about her, and denied sharing it with anyone but the head nurse, who confirmed receiving it from him. The judge held that article 218-C also covers artificially produced nudity and found that two people received the material. The court took into account her reported anxiety crises, psychological treatment and a workplace that had become hostile. The sentence of one year, one month and ten days was set in the open regime and replaced by community service and a payment of one minimum wage; no minimum compensation was fixed because she had filed a separate civil claim. Any appeal is not reported.

Core concern Medium reported severity Criminal Charges

AI involvement supported · Causal attribution established · 1 source · Added 01/11/2026

Mar 2024United Kingdom, NigeriaUnidentified AI tool

UK tribunal strikes off a dietitian it found used AI to answer clinical questions in a remote NHS job interview; she denied using AI

A dietitian on the UK register who was in Nigeria at the time was interviewed online in March 2024 for an entry-level oncology dietitian post at an NHS hospital in Surrey, according to reports of a Health and Care Professions Tribunal Service decision. The reports say the interviewers noticed that she repeatedly asked for clinical questions to be repeated and then gave fluent, textbook answers while her eyes moved as if reading from another screen, and that all of them came to the view she was using artificial intelligence; a case study she then completed was also judged AI-assisted, and her answers were later run through an AI check with striking similarities. She denied using AI, saying she habitually repeated questions and was looking at her router. The tribunal panel found that she used AI in the interview, that this was cheating and dishonesty, and ordered that she be struck off the register, with an interim suspension of 18 months during which she may appeal. Nigerian outlets, citing the Daily Mail, said the tool was ChatGPT; the local report describes it only as AI. The decision date and any appeal are not stated in the sources read.

Core concern Medium reported severity Regulatory Action

AI involvement reported · Causal attribution supported · 3 sources, 2 underlying accounts · Added 01/11/2026

Event date unknownEvent location unknownUnidentified chatbot

Apple farmer tells MBC's PD Su-cheop that a chatbot's praise drew him into a 20-billion-won business plan it later called infeasible

MBC's investigative programme PD Su-cheop, in an episode broadcast on 23 June 2026 about people drawn deep into generative AI, featured a man who has grown apples for 13 years. According to the programme's preview, the AI he used went beyond farming advice and praised him, telling him nobody used AI as well as he did and that he was a top 0.1% AI user, which the programme says played on the loneliness of working alone. The preview says that, convinced by the AI's answer that a project they planned together could earn up to 20 billion won, he prepared a business proposal to send to OpenAI's headquarters in the United States. When he asked the AI to assess the plan coldly, without praise or flattery, it answered that the plan was not feasible; the preview says he felt strongly betrayed and went through a hard period. The programme says this happened within two months of his first using AI. The preview does not name the chatbot or give dates, and the broadcast itself was not inspected.

Core concern Low reported severity Media Coverage

AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 2 sources, 1 underlying account · Added 01/11/2026

Event date unknownThailandUnidentified video tool

Thai PBS Verify says a Crystallum AI investment advert used an AI deepfake of a former NHK World anchor; she said she was shocked her image was used

In August 2025 Thai PBS Verify reported a Facebook advert that carried the Thai PBS World Tonight logo and showed a news anchor apparently interviewing two prominent Thai business leaders about an investment scheme called Crystallum AI. The anchor was a former NHK World presenter who had never anchored for Thai PBS. Thai PBS Verify traced the footage to a 2013 English-language report about flood housing, found that the logo had been changed and the English reporting replaced with a synthesized Thai voice, and said an AI detection tool gave a 72.3% probability that the clip was an AI deepfake. The former anchor said she was shocked her image was used to deceive people into investing and that it could discredit her reputation, and spoke out to warn others. No person who invested after seeing the advert is described.

Core concern Low reported severity Media Coverage

AI involvement reported · Causal attribution supported · 1 source · Added 01/11/2026

26 Jun 2024United StatesUnidentified AI writing tool

Wyoming newspaper editor says a new reporter's stories carried AI-generated quotes from six people, including the governor; the reporter resigned

In summer 2024 a reporter who had joined the Cody Enterprise, a small newspaper in Cody, Wyoming, about two months earlier wrote stories with the help of generative AI. A reporter at the competing Powell Tribune noticed robotic phrasing and quotes that seemed off, including a 26 June story about a local parade that ended with an explanation of how to structure a news story. According to the Powell Tribune reporter, the Enterprise reporter admitted using AI in his stories, and he then resigned. The Enterprise's editor told the Associated Press that a review had found seven stories with AI-generated quotes from six people, and that people he spoke to in the review said they had never talked to the reporter. A spokesperson for Wyoming Governor Mark Gordon said one quote attributed to the governor was entirely fabricated and another partly fabricated. The editor and publisher apologised in editorials, and the editor said the paper would adopt an AI policy. The reporter did not respond to the AP. The AI tool used is not identified.

Core concern Medium reported severity Internal Action

AI involvement reported · Causal attribution supported · 2 sources, 1 underlying account · Added 01/11/2026

Event date unknownThailandUnidentified video tool

Thai PBS Verify says Facebook investment advert used an AI deepfake of a Thai PBS World anchor; the anchor said viewers could take it for real news

In mid-2025 a Facebook page using a news outlet's logo ran a two-minute video as adverts in which a Thai PBS World news anchor appeared to interview the chief executive of the Miss Universe Organization about an online investment platform said to turn 8,000 baht into as much as 800,000 baht. Thai PBS Verify reported on 22 July 2025 that the clip was an AI deepfake: it traced the anchor's footage to a Thai PBS World Tonight report of 24 June 2025, and the chairman of the company Guardian AI, whom it consulted as an AI image technology specialist, cited lip movements that do not match the voice and blurred facial features. The anchor told Thai PBS Verify that ordinary viewers could mistake it for real news, that this was the most convincing of at least three or four such incidents in a year, and that she was worried. No person who invested after seeing the advert is described.

Core concern Low reported severity Media Coverage

AI involvement reported · Causal attribution supported · 2 sources, 1 underlying account · Added 01/11/2026

Event date unknownEvent location unknownUnidentified video tool

Qatari courts order news channel to compensate woman whose photos it processed with AI into a virtual news presenter, newspaper reports

Al-Sharq reported on 25 June 2026, in an article quoting the woman's lawyers, that the Investment and Trade Court, in what the paper called the first case of its kind, ordered a news channel to compensate a woman whose personal photos and video clips it had processed with artificial intelligence, without her permission, to create a virtual character presented as a digital news presenter under an assumed name. The channel had launched the presenter with programmes, promotional material and a press conference, and removed the material after the woman's lawyer sent a legal warning. She also argued that news delivered by the character conflicted with her own convictions, which attributed views to her falsely. A court-appointed intellectual-property expert found the AI output to be an independent work, but the court held that the channel had exploited her images and simulated her with AI, violating her rights to her image and privacy. The appeal court reduced the award from 700,000 to 100,000 Qatari riyals, and the Court of Cassation declined the channel's further appeal, making the judgment final. The woman and the channel are not named, and the dates of the broadcasts and rulings are not given.

Core concern Medium reported severity Lawsuit Settled

AI involvement reported · Causal attribution supported · 1 source · Added 31/10/2026

Oct 2026South KoreaUnidentified voice-cloning tool

Danish Industry says an AI-cloned voice of its chief executive called its South Korea office seeking a payment; the attempt was stopped

The Confederation of Danish Industry (DI) said on 29 October 2026 that an employee at its office in South Korea had recently been phoned by a voice that sounded like DI's chief executive. According to DI, the voice spoke Danish and asked the employee to start a payment in connection with a supposedly confidential matter; DI states that it was not the chief executive and that the voice was created with artificial intelligence. DR reports that the call took place the previous week and sought the transfer of about half a million dollars (3.3 million kroner); DI's cybersecurity adviser told DR the callers said it concerned a confidential acquisition abroad. According to DR, after claiming a bad line the caller moved to WhatsApp, writing from a profile with the chief executive's name and photo. DI says the attempt was detected before any money was transferred, partly through internal controls, and that it reported the case to the police. The chief executive, who heard the recording, told DR it was convincing enough to have fooled his mother and called the experience unpleasant and frightening; on LinkedIn he wrote that it sent a chill down his spine that someone had used his person and voice against his colleagues. How DI established that the voice was AI-generated is not stated.

Core concern Low reported severity Media Coverage

AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 5 sources, 4 underlying accounts · Added 31/10/2026

Event date unknownChinaUnidentified video tool

Nanchong police say a man had AI face-swap obscene videos made from images of several female colleagues and spread them for profit; he was detained

Police in Nanchong, Sichuan, said on 29 October 2026 that their investigation found a man had secretly filmed or stolen image material of several female colleagues, commissioned other people to make AI face-swap obscene videos from it, and spread the videos for profit through social platforms in and outside China and a QQ group he ran, charging entry fees and selling goods. According to the police, a female colleague or colleagues (the account does not say how many) discovered what had happened and called the police; he was traced, caught and placed in administrative detention, and the case remains under investigation. The police did not say how they established that the videos were AI-made, how many colleagues were depicted or when the conduct took place.

Core concern High reported severity Investigation Opened

AI involvement reported · Causal attribution supported · 2 sources, 1 underlying account · Added 31/10/2026

16 Sept 2026UkraineUnidentified image tool

Ukrainian court fines mother after her son used AI to generate a fake nude photo of his teacher and sent it to a classmate

A district court in Ukraine's Poltava region fined the mother of a school pupil on 22 October 2026 after finding she had failed in her duty to bring up her son, who, according to the case materials as reported, used a neural network on 16 September 2026 to generate fake nude photos of his teacher from her image without her consent and sent one to a classmate. The mother admitted the offence and confirmed her son had made such images, saying he sent only one to a classmate and that she did not know how the photos spread further. The court imposed an administrative fine of 850 hryvnias plus court fees. The report does not name the AI tool, and no statement from the teacher is reported.

Core concern Medium reported severity Regulatory Action

AI involvement reported · Causal attribution supported · 1 source · Added 30/10/2026

Event date unknownTaiwan, ChinaUnidentified video tool

Taiwan police say a ring used AI deepfake face videos of at least 55 people in China to pass a digital-yuan app's identity check and take about NT$200 million

Taiwan's Criminal Investigation Bureau said on 2 February 2026 that a fraud-services ring working with offshore scam call centres obtained personal data and photos of people in mainland China and used deepfake technology, which public broadcaster PTS reports as AI, to make face-verification videos of the victims. The videos passed the identity check of China's digital-yuan (e-CNY) app, letting the ring bind the victims' bank accounts and move their savings. Police count at least 55 victims and losses of about NT$200 million. Officers raided the ring's flat in Beitun, Taichung, in November 2024, and its financier was arrested in Thailand and returned to Taiwan; Taichung prosecutors indicted four people for fraud, computer misuse and organised crime. The dates of the individual thefts are not reported.

Core concern High reported severity Criminal Charges

AI involvement reported · Causal attribution supported · 2 sources, 1 underlying account · Added 30/10/2026

Event date unknownEvent location unknownChatGPT

Man tells Rolling Stone his estranged wife confronted her parents on ChatGPT's advice, making family relations more volatile and her more isolated

A man interviewed anonymously by Rolling Stone (4 May 2025) says that after he and his wife split up, she began talking to God and angels via ChatGPT. He says she was already susceptible to such beliefs, that she has grown paranoid and suspects he works for the CIA, and that an already strained relationship with her parents deteriorated further when she confronted them about her childhood on advice and guidance from ChatGPT, making the family dynamic more volatile and worsening her isolation. The article does not quote what ChatGPT told her. She was not interviewed, and OpenAI did not immediately comment.

Core concern Medium reported severity Media Coverage

AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 1 source · Added 30/10/2026

3 Oct 2026Event location unknownTaopiaopiao AI assistant

Taopiaopiao customer says the ticket app's AI support assistant swore back at her over missing refund vouchers; platform later said it had optimised the service

Shenzhen Special Zone Daily and its Dute news app reported on 4 October 2026 that a customer of Taopiaopiao, Alibaba Pictures' cinema-ticket app, said its AI customer-service assistant swore at her. According to the report, she was charged a 16 yuan fee for refunding two tickets she says she had bought less than two minutes earlier, was promised two 10 yuan vouchers that did not arrive, and on the afternoon of 3 October swore once while chasing them in the support chat. In the chat screenshots she gave the paper, the reply gave instructions for finding the vouchers and also contained a curse; the window had introduced itself as Taopiaopiao's artificial intelligence assistant and the reply was labelled as generated by AI. She said she was stunned and that a human agent would not explain it. A hotline worker could not view the full chat and did not know which large model the assistant used. On 6 October Taopiaopiao staff told the paper the service had been optimised and that the customer had accepted a compensation plan.

Core concern Low reported severity

AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 3 sources, 1 underlying account · Added 30/10/2026

2024Event location unknownNotebookLM

Former NPR host alleges Google's NotebookLM AI podcast voice imitates his own; California judge lets his publicity claims proceed

Former NPR Morning Edition co-host David Greene alleges that the default male AI host voice in Google's NotebookLM Audio Overviews, a feature introduced in September 2024 that turns uploaded documents into podcast-style conversations, imitates his voice and speaking habits and was used to market the product without his permission. He told NPR that in fall 2024 friends and colleagues messaged him that it sounded like him, and that listening to it felt creepy. He sued Google in Santa Clara County Superior Court on 23 January 2026; the complaint cites listeners and a forensic voice-recognition firm. Google calls the allegation baseless and says it hired a professional actor and built the voice around him. In October 2026 Judge Shella Deen overruled Google's demurrer to all four causes of action, while stating that whether the voice was made from Greene's recordings or from another source that resembles him is a factual question still to be decided.

Core concern Low reported severity Lawsuit Ongoing

AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 4 sources, 2 underlying accounts · Added 30/10/2026

29 Oct 2026Event location unknownGrok Bot (reported)

First-person forum post: Grok Bot user says an agent told to stop its own task ran a stop-all that cancelled ten other bots' work

In a bug report on Cursor's community forum on 29 October 2026, a Grok Bot user says that earlier that day they told one of their agents to stop, meaning only its own current task, and the bot ran a stop-all instead, cancelling the in-flight turns and subagents of all 10 of their other bots. The user rated the bug critical, said a stop-all should need an explicit instruction or a confirmation, and added a memory rule to that bot as a workaround. No vendor reply had been posted when the thread was read.

Core concern Low reported severity

AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 1 source · Added 30/10/2026

Event date unknownEvent location unknownAirbnb AI Assistant (reported)

Airbnb host says AI support assistant said resubmitted refunds would replace the held one; three refunds totalling £358.63 went to the guest (first-person)

An Airbnb host posted on Reddit (r/airbnb_hosts, 1 June 2026) a transcript of a support chat with Airbnb's AI assistant. According to the post, the host had tried to give guests a goodwill refund of about one night after they reported a cracked bed frame, and the refund showed as on hold with a minimum-not-met message. The transcript shows the assistant saying no refund had been processed and recommending resubmission; when the host asked whether that could send the money twice, it replied that resubmitting would replace the pending request and that duplicate submissions are automatically rejected or overwritten. After two more attempts, including one at the exact nightly rate the assistant suggested, a human support agent said the guest had been refunded three times (£115, £120 and £123.63), that the payments could not be reversed directly, and that the host should file a claim asking the guest to return the excess. The host had wanted to give a single £100 gesture. The post does not report the outcome.

Core concern Low reported severity

AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 2 sources · Added 30/10/2026

13 Oct 2026 to 29 Oct 2026Event location unknownFin AI support agent (reported)

Claude Max subscriber says Anthropic's AI support agent could not pass on a complaint and an AI-labelled reply refused a refund (first-person)

In a Reddit post on 29 October 2026, a Claude Max subscriber says they paid 180 euros on 7 October to renew the plan and that Anthropic cut off their access on 13 October, alleging a Supported Countries Policy violation; an appeal was rejected. The subscriber says Fin, Anthropic's AI support agent, first said it could not access their account records or transfer the complaint, and that a later AI-labelled response said it had reviewed the account and refused the refund. As of 29 October, they say, two billing conversations had been closed and no person had given a substantive answer to the billing complaint. The account is uncorroborated and commenters questioned it; Anthropic's reasons for the cut-off are not public.

Core concern Low reported severity Media Coverage

AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 3 sources · Added 30/10/2026

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.