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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
44
Countries with reported events
17
Located 29 of 44 cases · 15 unknown
Languages in checked sources
14
Recorded for 44 of 44 cases

3 cases have no reviewed AI-to-person relation yet: 0 not yet reviewed and 3 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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44 of 1101 published cases · page 1 of 3

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

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

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

Jan 2024 to Jan 2025Cambodia, South KoreaUnidentified video tool

Ulsan court jails Korean couple who ran a Cambodia-based romance and investment fraud using deepfake videos of a fake investment expert

South Korean prosecutors indicted a married couple in February 2026 on charges that, from January 2024 to January 2025, they ran phone-fraud groups in Cambodia that targeted Koreans with romance-and-investment scams; according to the prosecutors, the husband used deepfake technology to make YouTube videos in which he posed as an investment expert, while the wife built relationships with victims in private chats, and 97 victims lost about 10.1 billion won. Both admitted the charges, and on 24 July 2026 the Ulsan District Court sentenced the husband to 15 years and the wife to 9 years in prison, noting that the victims described severe harm while the defendants had made no effort to compensate them. Prosecutors appealed; at the appeal hearing on 22 October 2026 they asked for 17 years for the husband, and a joint appeal judgment is pending.

Core concern High reported severity Criminal Charges

AI involvement reported · Causal attribution supported · 4 sources, 3 underlying accounts · Added 31/10/2026

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

Jan 2024Event location unknownDPD chatbot

Customer says DPD's AI support chatbot could not help him trace a missing parcel and, when tested, swore and criticised DPD; the firm disabled its AI element

In January 2024 a DPD customer who was trying to trace a missing parcel through the delivery firm's online chat could not get useful information from its chatbot, according to the Guardian. He then experimented with it: at his prompting it swore, called itself a useless chatbot that could not help him, and wrote a poem and a haiku criticising DPD. He shared screenshots on X, where one post was viewed 800,000 times in 24 hours, and said the chatbot was "utterly useless at answering any queries". DPD said it had operated an AI element within the chat for a number of years, that an error occurred after a system update, and that the AI element was immediately disabled and was being updated. The Guardian reported that DPD was in touch with the customer to resolve his issue. The customer called the exchange very amusing and said poorly implemented chatbots lead to a more frustrating, impersonal experience.

Core concern Low reported severity Internal Action

AI involvement supported · Causal attribution supported · 2 sources · Added 29/10/2026

2024TaiwanUnidentified image tool

Taiwan court sentences band photographer who used AI face swapping to put at least five female musicians into false sexual images

Taiwan's High Court on 29 October 2026 sentenced a photographer from Taipei's band scene to 11 months in prison, suspended for four years, for using AI deepfake face swapping to turn performance and publicity photos of female musicians into false sexual images that were posted on an X account, according to ETtoday. Prosecutors said that from 2024 he took at least five women's photos from Facebook and Instagram and used an AI synthesis function in Telegram to paste their faces onto nude and sexual images, which a co-defendant posted for public viewing; the women found their faces on the account and reported it to police. In a first-instance ruling reported on 1 June 2026, the Shilin District Court had sentenced him to one year, suspended, for illegally using personal data; the appeal court, also finding three counts, set 11 months, again suspended and with a NT$200,000 payment to the treasury. He admitted the acts and settled with one of the five women. One of them said publicly that she had been harassed with deepfake nude images and that people had been urged to sexually harass her for four years, and that the account disgusted her. The ruling can be appealed. The photographer and the women are not named here.

Core concern High reported severity Criminal Charges

AI involvement supported · Causal attribution established · 4 sources · Added 29/10/2026

Jun 2024Event location unknownUnidentified face-swap and voice-synthesis tool

Hangzhou Internet Court rules a skincare seller used AI face swap and voice synthesis to fake a beauty blogger's sales videos, awarding damages

A CCTV News report of 29 September 2026 says the Hangzhou Internet Court in Zhejiang recently concluded a portrait-rights case brought by a beauty blogger. According to the report, from June 2024 an online skincare-sales company, without the blogger's consent, took short videos and livestream footage the blogger had published and used AI synthesis to make more than 30 fake videos in which the blogger appeared to promote its products. The court found that the company had used AI face swap and the recombination of image and sound tracks to fabricate the videos for commercial gain, infringing the blogger's portrait rights. In court the company acknowledged that it had synthesised and published the videos without the blogger's authorisation, said staff had made them out of fun and curiosity, and said it had taken them all down after receiving the lawsuit papers. The court ordered the company to pay 15,000 yuan for economic loss and the costs of protecting the blogger's rights and 5,000 yuan in compensation for emotional distress, and to publish an apology prominently on the platform concerned for at least 30 days. The blogger's claim that the products sold more than 100,000 orders was not accepted as proof of loss or profit.

Core concern Low reported severity Lawsuit Filed

AI involvement reported · Causal attribution supported · 1 source · Added 26/10/2026

Nov 2024Event location unknownChatGPT (reported)

Crypto user says ChatGPT-written trading bot code sent his wallet's private key to a scam API and about $2,500 was stolen

On 21 November 2024 a cryptocurrency user posted on X that he had asked ChatGPT to help write a 'bump bot' for the Pump.fun token platform, and that the code it returned pointed to a scam Solana API website. By his account, the code sent his wallet's private key to that API; he had connected his main wallet, and its assets, about $2,500, were moved out within about half an hour. The founder of the blockchain security firm SlowMist commented that the bot code carried a backdoor and called the case an AI poisoning attack. Heise, ForkLog, Cryptopolitan and Odaily relayed the posts on 22 and 25 November 2024. He said he reported the chat to OpenAI and the source repository to GitHub, which removed it. Heise noted that the code's own comment showed the private key being sent and that he had used his main wallet rather than a test account.

Core concern Medium reported severity

AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 4 sources, 1 underlying account · Added 25/10/2026

2024ItalyUnidentified image tool

Italian administrative court upholds Genoa university's dismissal of a lecturer who made sexualised images of six students, reportedly with AI

In 2024 an associate professor at the University of Genoa took photos from the social-media profiles of six students, turned them into sexual images and shared them in Telegram chats. According to la Repubblica's October 2024 report, Genoa prosecutors accused him of 'undressing' the photos with apps that use artificial intelligence; the investigation began on 1 October 2024 after the rector's complaint, the postal police searched his office and home, and he was suspended. The university later dismissed him. According to Open and Fanpage, which report the judgment, the regional administrative court for Liguria (TAR) rejected his appeal against the dismissal in September 2026, citing a search record that found sexual virtual images on his computer matching those posted, and his interrogation, in which he admitted posting the images and creating them with software. The court found the repeated conduct harmful to the students' dignity and to the university. The criminal case, for aggravated defamation, was closed; the lecturer paid the students compensation. The tool used is not identified.

Core concern High reported severity Internal Action

AI involvement reported · Causal attribution supported · 4 sources, 2 underlying accounts · Added 24/10/2026

24 Feb 2024United KingdomUnidentified image tool (suspected)

Families paid for a Glasgow Willy Wonka-themed event advertised with images that appeared AI-generated and found a near-empty warehouse

A Willy Wonka-inspired 'Chocolate Experience' run by House of Illuminati in a Glasgow warehouse on 24 February 2024 promised oversized lollipops and a paradise of sweet treats, promoted with candy-coloured images on its website. Ticket-holders who paid £35 a ticket found a sparsely decorated warehouse; a mother who bought five tickets said it was nothing like what was described, and visitors described young children crying. The event was cancelled that afternoon, police were called as attendees demanded refunds, and the company apologised and promised full refunds. NBC News found the website images could not be traced elsewhere by reverse image search and that some bore hallmarks of AI creation such as nonsensical lettering; other outlets called the adverts AI-generated. The organiser did not confirm AI use to NBC News.

Core concern Low reported severity Media Coverage

AI involvement suspected · Causal attribution alleged · 3 sources · Added 24/10/2026

Oct 2024Event location unknownUnidentified video tool

South Korean police say a foreign parent was sent a deepfake video of a daughter travelling in Korea crying for help while held captive, with a ransom demand

South Korea's National Police Agency disclosed on 7 November 2024 that around October 2024 a foreign national received on a smartphone a video showing a daughter, who was travelling in Korea, locked in a room, crying and asking to be saved. The sender said the daughter had been kidnapped and demanded a settlement payment to keep her alive. The parents told their consulate, and Korean police who responded confirmed that the daughter was safe; according to the police, the crying daughter was a fake video made with deepfake technology. Police used the case to warn that similar scams could occur in Korea. Police said the parents lived abroad and that, fortunately, the case caused no damage.

Core concern Low reported severity Media Coverage

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

Oct 2024JapanUnidentified image tool

Tokyo police say a man used generative AI to make about 20,000 sexual images resembling 262 female celebrities and sold access to them

The Tokyo Metropolitan Police announced on 16 October 2025 that they had arrested a 31-year-old company employee on suspicion of displaying obscene electronic records, for posting on social media obscene images made with image-generation AI to resemble female celebrities. According to the police, from October 2024 he posted about 20,000 AI-made sexual images resembling 262 actresses, idols and announcers and earned about 1.2 million yen in viewing fees; the charge covers three images resembling three actresses posted between January and June 2025. Police say he trained a freely available image-generation AI on the women's images, let higher-paying viewers name the celebrity to be depicted, and admitted the charge. The police described it as the first arrest over AI-made obscene images resembling celebrities.

Core concern Medium reported severity Criminal Charges

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

2024BrazilUnidentified document-generation tool

Maranhão, Brazil: police say a woman used AI to create fake airline tickets sold in travel packages of up to 10,000 reais; at least 11 victims identified

The Maranhão Civil Police said in October 2026 that a woman held in pre-trial detention had sold travel packages promising a year of flights for a fixed payment of about 8,000 to 10,000 reais, and that she used artificial intelligence to create fake airline tickets. No genuine tickets were issued. The investigation first identified 11 victims, some of whom, including older people, children and pregnant women, went to airports and could not board; the police say they suffered financial losses and emotional strain. She blamed overbooking or airline system failures. The police do not say which AI tool was used or how they established its use.

Core concern Medium reported severity Criminal Charges

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

Jul 2024South KoreaUnidentified image tool

Incheon high-school student jailed for AI deepfake nude composites of his teachers posted online; a civil court later orders him to pay one teacher damages

In July 2024 a high-school student in Incheon, South Korea, composited the faces of two female teachers at his school and of others, including an academy senior and an instructor, onto nude photos and posted them on social media, according to the charges as reported by Yonhap, the Hankyoreh, the JoongAng Ilbo and the Kyunghyang Shinmun, which describe the technique as AI-based deepfake technology. He had also secretly photographed teachers in class. He was expelled after a teachers' rights committee hearing. On 27 August 2025 the Incheon District Court gave him an indeterminate prison term of one year to one year six months and took him into custody; the court said that as a result the victimised teacher had left teaching and had not returned. On 19 December 2025, after he had turned adult, the appeal division raised the sentence to three years, calling the offence close to 'character assassination' and the teachers' mental shock considerable; OBS reports the sentence is final. On 21 October 2026, according to the Incheon Teachers' Union, a civil judge at the Incheon District Court ordered him, now 20, to pay one teacher 17.7 million won of the roughly 72 million won she claimed.

Core concern High reported severity Criminal Charges

AI involvement reported · Causal attribution supported · 6 sources · Added 21/10/2026

Apr 2024GermanyUnidentified website and voice tool

Detmold, Germany: court convicts a man who admitted using AI to build fake shop websites and a generated voice in frauds on 32 buyers

A man tried before the lay-assessor court in Detmold, Germany, confessed to taking 19,190 euros between April 2024 and September 2025 from 32 buyers who paid for box-spring beds, kitchens and cars listed on eBay or TikTok that never existed, the Lippische Landes-Zeitung reported on 4 August 2026. He told the court that AI had helped him build the fake shop websites he used to make the offers look credible and that he had generated a female voice with AI for a telephone call with a customer. The court convicted him of fraud in 32 cases and sentenced him to two and a half years in prison; his appeal is pending. On 13 October 2026 the court acquitted his former partner, in whose name several of the accounts had been opened.

Core concern Medium reported severity Criminal Charges

AI involvement reported · Causal attribution supported · 2 sources, 1 underlying account · Added 14/10/2026

2024United StatesUnidentified voice-cloning tool (suspected)

Florida: judge suspended for sharing, as a 2024 candidate, a fabricated call of justices the judicial watchdog says was likely computer-manipulated or AI-made

While campaigning in 2024 for a Broward County court seat, Lauren Peffer, now a county judge, sought the endorsement of the South Florida Sun Sentinel editorial board. Asked to back her claim of an image crisis in Florida's judiciary, she cited a self-published book by a fired employee of the Ninth Judicial Circuit and supplied a recording purportedly of a phone call about the book between Chief Justice Carlos Muñiz, Justice Renatha Francis and the circuit's chief judge, Lisa Munyon. The Florida Judicial Qualifications Commission's notice of formal charges, filed in May 2025, said the recording was fabricated, likely using computer manipulation or generative AI, and that while the voices resembled those of the participants, the manner of speech, tone and much of the content were objectively unrealistic. The notice said she had shared it despite clear evidence of its inauthenticity and had perpetuated a false perception of illegal, unethical or immoral conduct by the justices, a chief judge and others in the judicial branch. Peffer apologised, said the content was created by a third party with whom she had no ties, and testified that she could not explain why she had thought it valid. According to Bloomberg Law, the Florida Supreme Court on 9 October 2026 suspended her for 30 days and fined her $10,000, saying her conduct undermined public confidence in the judiciary by implicating sitting justices; the two justices whose voices were faked recused. Who made the recording, and with what tool, is not reported.

Core concern Low reported severity Regulatory Action

AI involvement suspected · Causal attribution alleged · 6 sources · Added 12/10/2026

2024Event location unknownChatGPT

Case report: woman in her mid-20s with anxiety came to rely on ChatGPT for reassurance and decisions, reported lost confidence in her judgment (JMIR Form Res)

A psychiatrist's case report in JMIR Formative Research (published online 16 September 2026) describes a woman in her mid-20s with generalised anxiety disorder and major depressive disorder who began using ChatGPT at work in summer 2024 and over the next two years increasingly turned to it when she felt uncertain: to draft and re-check emails and personal messages, interpret partners' texts, predict outcomes such as graduate-school admissions and a breakup, and make decisions. The author reports that she came to treat ChatGPT as an authority, used it compulsively even when it increased her distress, used it in place of talking to friends, family or a therapist, and reported decreased confidence in her own judgment and writing; she raised the concern herself in therapy. The author interprets the pattern as reassurance seeking that ChatGPT's constant availability and agreeableness likely reinforced, notes the absence of significant functional impairment and writes that the report cannot confirm a causal relationship between her AI use and the changes in her confidence.

Core concern Low reported severity Media Coverage

AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 2 sources, 1 underlying account · Added 11/10/2026

Nov 2024 to Feb 2025IndonesiaUnidentified video tool

Indonesia: police say deepfake videos of President Prabowo offering aid led viewers to pay fake 'administrative fees'; two suspects arrested in early 2025

Indonesian police say a 29-year-old man and a 25-year-old in Lampung province made or spread AI deepfake videos showing President Prabowo Subianto, Finance Minister Sri Mulyani and other officials offering government aid, with a WhatsApp number attached. According to police, viewers who contacted the number were asked to transfer an 'administrative fee' and promised a disbursement that never existed; police recorded 11 victims of the first suspect from five provinces, and the second suspect alone is said by police to have taken roughly Rp 65 million from roughly 100 people in 20 provinces since December 2024. A police forensic laboratory reported the video as a deepfake with a near-100% fake score. The suspects were arrested on 16 January and 4 February 2025 and handed to prosecutors in April 2025.

Core concern Low reported severity Criminal Charges

AI involvement supported · Causal attribution alleged · 8 sources, 2 underlying accounts · Added 09/10/2026

2024Event location unknownUnidentified image tool

Man who used AI to make fake nude images of female relatives, alongside secret shower recordings, jailed 27 months, outlet reports

Stomp reported on 4 October 2026, citing Shin Min Daily News, that a man was sentenced to 27 months’ jail after pleading guilty to four of ten charges involving the taking, distribution and possession of intimate images. According to the report, he secretly filmed female family members showering from 2024 and shared images with other men, and investigations also found that he used AI to create fake nude images of female relatives. He shared some of the AI images with a male cousin, who was also involved in creating and distributing them. AI-generated nude images and secret recordings were found on another phone he had borrowed after his release on bail, and a family member made a further police report. One female relative said the incident left her depressed and unable to eat or sleep properly. The court barred the media from publishing information that could identify the victims, including the man’s name.

Core concern Medium reported severity Criminal Charges

AI involvement reported · Causal attribution supported · 2 sources, 1 underlying account · Added 06/10/2026

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