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AI incident ·

AI incident: sexual content (Jan 2025)

19 news reports Snapshot 7 Sep 2026

In brief

An AI system built by Deepfake Technology Developers and deployed by Unknown Sextortionists and Cybercriminals allegedly harmed Wtvf, Newschannel 5 Nashville Wtvf and 4 others.

Risk domain
Malicious Actors & Misuse Fraud, scams, and targeted manipulation
Occurred
Coverage
19 reportsJan 2025 - May 2025

What happened

Bree Smith, a meteorologist in Nashville, Tennessee, was reportedly targeted in a sextortion campaign involving purported AI-generated deepfakes that manipulated her likeness into explicit content. According to reporting, Smith's face was digitally placed onto semi-nude and nude bodies, with the resulting media circulated online by impersonators seeking money. Smith documented the spread of these accounts and has advocated for legislative responses, including a new Tennessee bill addressing deep

Laws that address this harm

Policy angle: Classified under Malicious Actors & Misuse (Fraud, scams, and targeted manipulation) in the MIT AI Risk Repository taxonomy; 5 recorded instruments address this use case.

Matched from the record's risk domain and country to the instruments recorded here. A reviewer can correct the match in the repository (data/external/incident_overrides.yaml).

News reports (19)

Titles link to the original publisher; report text is not reproduced here.

  1. NewsChannel 5 meteorologist Bree Smith leaves station after nine years
    tennessean.com · Brad Schmitt
  2. Bree Smith's NewsChannel 5 exit came after station says it 'actively' worked to keep her
    tennessean.com · Brad Schmitt
  3. Bree Smith said she's the victim of a semi-nude deepfake. Now, she wants the law changed
    tennessean.com · Brad Schmitt, Melissa Brown
  4. Bree Smith, NewsChannel 5 failed to get semi-nude deepfakes removed
    tennessean.com · Brad Schmitt
  5. Bree Smith said she's the victim of a semi-nude deepfake. Now, she wants the law changed
    commercialappeal.com · Brad Schmitt, Melissa Brown
  6. Nashville meteorologist testifies after being the target of semi-nude deepfake images
    wsmv.com · Dryden Quigley
  7. Protecting people from deepfake images
    wsmv.com · WSMV
  8. Bree Smith demands action from lawmakers over AI deepfake videos in powerful testimony
    commercialappeal.com · Christina Cardona
  9. TV meteorologist devastated as 'degrading' semi-nude deepfakes of her spread across the internet
    dailymail.co.uk · Melissa Koenig
  10. State leaders push for new laws to combat deepfake deception and protect online identities
    fox17.com · Hope Salman
  11. Former Nashville TV personality Bree Smith shared her story on the House floor in support of a bill to criminally charge people for sharing fake content
    instagram.com · foxnashville
  12. Former News Channel 5 Meteorologist Bree Smith backs Tennessee bill to criminalize deepfakes
    tennesseelookout.com · Cassandra Stephenson
  13. A Nashville meteorologist was a victim of deepfakes. Here's what to know about the technology in Tennessee
    tennessean.com · Diana Leyva
  14. A Nashville meteorologist was a victim of deepfakes. Here's what to know about the technology in Tennessee
    finance.yahoo.com · Diana Leyva
  15. After Bree Smith testimony, legislature passes bill battling 'intimate' deep fakes online
    tennessean.com · Brad Schmitt
  16. How Bree Smith explained to her young sons why she is battling 'intimate' deep fakes online
    tennessean.com · Brad Schmitt
  17. Former TV meteorologist fights deepfakes after her image was doctored in sextortion scams
    cbsnews.com · Nicole Valdes, Emily Mae Czachor
  18. Former TV meteorologist battles AI sextortion scam
    youtu.be · CBS Mornings
  19. TV meteorologist shaken after sultry video of 'herself' makes rounds on the internet in chilling new craze
    dailymail.co.uk · Samantha Rutt

Who was involved

Alleged harmed party
Wtvf, Newschannel 5 Nashville Wtvf, General Public Of Tennessee, General Public, Bree Smith, Epistemic Integrity

Classification (MIT AI Risk Repository taxonomy)

Causal entity
AI
Intent
Intentional
Timing
Post-deployment
Harm level
—
Sectors
—
Countries
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Risk entries describing this failure mode

Entries from the MIT AI Risk Repository coded to subdomain 4.3.

  • Cheating/plagiarism

    "Cheating/plagiarism - Use of another person’s or group’s words or ideas without consent and/or acknowledgement."

    A Collaborative, Human-Centred Taxonomy of AI, Algorithmic, and Automation Harms (Abercrombie2024)

  • IP/copyright loss

    "IP/copyright loss - Misuse or abuse of an individual or organisation’s intellectual property, including copyright, trademarks, and patents."

    A Collaborative, Human-Centred Taxonomy of AI, Algorithmic, and Automation Harms (Abercrombie2024)

  • Financial and business

    "Financial and Business - Use or misuse of a technology system in a manner that damages the financial interests of an individual or group, or which causes strategic, operational, legal or financial harm to a business or...

    A Collaborative, Human-Centred Taxonomy of AI, Algorithmic, and Automation Harms (Abercrombie2024)

  • Impersonation/identity theft

    "Impersonation/identity theft - Theft of an individual, group or organisation’s identity by a third-party in order to defraud, mock or otherwise harm them."

    A Collaborative, Human-Centred Taxonomy of AI, Algorithmic, and Automation Harms (Abercrombie2024)

  • Dehumanisation/objectification

    "Dehumanisation/objectification - Use or misuse of a technology system to depict and/or treat people as not human, less than human, or as objects."

    A Collaborative, Human-Centred Taxonomy of AI, Algorithmic, and Automation Harms (Abercrombie2024)

  • Defamation/libel/slander

    "Defamation/libel/slander - Use of a technology system to create, facilitate or amplify false perception(s) about an individual, group, or organisation."

    A Collaborative, Human-Centred Taxonomy of AI, Algorithmic, and Automation Harms (Abercrombie2024)

  • Misinformation and Manipulation

    "Recent studies have demonstrated that LLMs can be exploited to craft deceptive narratives with levels of persuasiveness similar to human-generated content (Pan et al., 2023b; Spitale et al., 2023), to fabri- cate fake n...

    Foundational Challenges in Assuring Alignment and Safety of Large Language Models (Anwar2024)

  • Cybersecurity

    "LLMs may exacerbate cybersecurity risks in various ways (Newman, 2024). Firstly, LLMs may significantly amplify the effectiveness of deceptive operations aimed at tricking people into disclosing sensitive information or...

    Foundational Challenges in Assuring Alignment and Safety of Large Language Models (Anwar2024)

Incidents in the same risk subdomain

All incidents in this subdomain

Source record: incident #1048 on the AI Incident Database · all 19 reports