AI Incident Database
Browse AI incidents
Every incident record (metadata only) from the weekly snapshot of 2026-09-07. Filter, then export the selection with its licence attached; each row links to the full record and its reports.
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Rite Aid Facial Recognition Disproportionately Misidentified Minority Shoppers as Shoplifters AIID ↗
Rite Aid used facial recognition technology from October 2012 to July 2020, allegedly leading to disproportionate misidentifications of women, Black, Latino, and Asian shoppers as "likely" shoplifters. The FTC settlement prohibits Rite Aid from using this technology in stores for five years.
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Ron DeSantis's Presidential Campaign Released Twitter Video Containing AI Images of Donald Trump Hugging Anthony Fauci AIID ↗
Ron DeSantis’s presidential campaign shared a video on Twitter featuring some AI-generated images of Donald Trump hugging former White House coronavirus advisor Anthony Fauci, allegedly as a smear campaign. This incident is possibly the first time a major U.S. presidential campaign deployed deepfakes with the intention of misleading the electorate.
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Amazon Fresh Cameras Failed to Register Purchased Items AIID ↗
Amazon Fresh's system of tracking cameras in its cashier-less stores was reported by shoppers for failing to detect items they purchased.
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Starship Delivery Robot Ran into Problems Traversing Campus Terrains AIID ↗
A Starship autonomous delivery robot struggled to navigate campus terrains of UCLA, reportedly getting stuck into a planter and falling off the stairs.
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Evolv AI Weapons Detection System Allegedly Misrepresents Accuracy, Leading to School Security Gaps AIID ↗
Evolv's AI-powered weapons scanners were advertised as superior to metal detectors but reportedly failed to detect actual weapons while generating excessive false positives. The FTC alleged that misleading claims about the system's accuracy and speed contributed to schools relying on unreliable detection, with at least one incident in October 2022 involving a missed knife that resulted in a student being stabbed.
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Justice Department’s Recidivism Risk Algorithm PATTERN Allegedly Caused Persistent Disparities Along Racial Lines AIID ↗
Department of Justice’s inmate-recidivism risk assessment tool was reported to have produced racially uneven results, misclassifying risk levels for inmates of color.
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Google Maps Allegedly Directed Sierra Nevada Travelers to Dangerous Roads amid Winter Storm AIID ↗
Lake Tahoe travelers were allegedly guided by Google Maps into hazardous shortcuts in the mountains during a snowstorm.
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Alexa Recommended Dangerous TikTok Challenge to Ten-Year-Old Girl AIID ↗
Amazon’s voice assistant Alexa suggested “the penny challenge,” which involves dangerously touching a coin to the prongs of a half-exposed plug, when a ten-year-old girl asked for a challenge to do.
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Web Accessibility Vendors Allegedly Falsely Claimed to Provide Compliance Using AI AIID ↗
AI-powered web accessibility vendors allegedly overstated to customers about their products' utility for people with disabilities, falsely claiming to deliver automated compliance solutions.
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Zillow Shut Down Zillow Offers Division Allegedly Due to Predictive Pricing Tool's Insufficient Accuracy AIID ↗
Zillow's AI-powered predictive pricing tool Zestimate was allegedly not able to accurately forecast housing prices three to six months in advance due to rapid market changes, prompting division shutdown and layoff of a few thousand employees.
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California Regulator Suspended Pony.ai's Driverless Testing Permit Following a Non-Fatal Collision AIID ↗
A Pony.ai vehicle operating in autonomous mode crashed into a center divider and a traffic sign in San Francisco, prompting a regulator to suspend the driverless testing permit for the startup.
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McDonald's AI Drive-Thru Allegedly Collected Biometric Customer Data without Consent, Violating BIPA AIID ↗
McDonald's use of chatbot in its AI drive-through in Chicago was alleged in a lawsuit to have collected and processed voice data without user consent to predict customer information, which violated Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA).
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Amazon's AI Cameras Incorrectly Penalized Delivery Drivers for Mistakes They Did Not Make AIID ↗
Amazon's automated performance evaluation system involving AI-powered cameras incorrectly punished delivery drivers for non-existent mistakes, impacting their chances for bonuses and rewards.
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Epic Systems’s Sepsis Prediction Algorithms Revealed to Have High Error Rates on Seriously Ill Patients AIID ↗
Epic System's sepsis prediction algorithms was shown by investigators at the University of Michigan Hospital to have high rates of false positives and false negatives, allegedly delivering inaccurate and irrelevant information on patients, contrasting sharply with their published claims.
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Tesla's Autopilot Misidentified the Moon as Yellow Stop Light AIID ↗
Tesla's Autopilot was shown on video by its owner mistaking the moon for a yellow stop light, allegedly causing the vehicle to keep slowing down.
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Skating Rink’s Facial Recognition Cameras Misidentified Black Teenager as Banned Troublemaker AIID ↗
A Black teenager living in Livonia, Michigan was incorrectly stopped from entering a roller skating rink after its facial-recognition cameras misidentified her as another person who had been previously banned for starting a skirmish with other skaters.
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Algorithmic Allocation of Resources in Healthcare for Disabled and Elderly Care Services Allegedly Harmed Patients AIID ↗
A healthcare algorithm designed to equitably distribute caregiving resources is alleged to have drastically cut care hours for the disabled and elderly, purportedly leading to significant hardships and harm. Initially developed for fair resource allocation, the system reportedly faced legal challenges for its inability to accurately assess individual needs, resulting in allegedly reduced essential care.
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N.Y.P.D. Robot Dog’s Run Is Cut Short After Fierce Backlash AIID ↗
The New York Police Department canceled a contract to use Boston Dynamics' robotic dog Spot following public backlash.
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Amazon's Monitoring System Allegedly Pushed Delivery Drivers to Prioritize Speed over Safety, Leading to Crash AIID ↗
A lawsuit cited Amazon as liable in a crash involving its delivery driver, alleging that Amazon’s AI-powered driver monitoring system pushed drivers to prioritize speed over safety.
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California's Algorithm Considered ZIP Codes in Vaccine Distribution, Allegedly Excluding Low-Income Neighborhoods and Communities of Color AIID ↗
California's vaccine-distribution algorithm used ZIP codes as opposed to census tracts in its decision-making, which critics said undermined equity and access for vulnerable communities who are largely low-income, underserved neighborhoods with low Healthy Places Index scores.
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FaceApp Predicted Different Genders for Similar User Photos with Slight Variations AIID ↗
FaceApp’s algorithm was reported by a user to have predicted different genders for two mostly identical facial photos with only a slight difference in eyebrow thickness.
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Frontline workers protest at Stanford after hospital distributed vaccine to administrators AIID ↗
In 2020, Stanford Medical Center's distribution algorithm only designated 7 of 5,000 vaccines to Medical Residents, who are frontline workers regularly exposed to COVID-19.
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Proctoring Algorithm in Online California Bar Exam Flagged an Unusually High Number of Alleged Cheaters AIID ↗
The proctoring algorithm used in a California bar exam cited a third of thousands of applicants as cheaters, resulting in allegations where exam takers were instructed to prove otherwise without seeing their incriminating video evidence.
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Amazon’s Robotic Fulfillment Centers Have Higher Serious Injury Rates AIID ↗
Amazon’s robotic fulfillment centers have higher serious injury rates.
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Philosophy AI Allegedly Used To Generate Mixture of Innocent and Harmful Reddit Posts AIID ↗
Philosopher AI, a GPT-3-powered controversial text generator, was allegedly used by an anonymous actor on AskReddit subreddit, whose posts featured a mixture of harmless stories, conspiracy theories, and sensitive topic discussions.
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OpenAI's GPT-3 Associated Muslims with Violence AIID ↗
Users and researchers revealed generative AI GPT-3 associating Muslims to violence in prompts, resulting in disturbingly racist and explicit outputs such as casting Muslim actor as a terrorist.
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Colorado Police’s Automated License Plate Reader (ALPR) Matched a Family’s Minivan’s Plate to That of a Stolen Vehicle Allegedly, Resulting in Detainment at Gunpoint AIID ↗
An automated plate reader reportedly matched a license plate information, but of a family’s minivan and an alleged motorcycle in Montana that was reportedly stolen earlier in the year, resulting in them and their children being held at gunpoint and detained in handcuffs by multiple Aurora police officers.
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Genderify’s AI to Predict a Person’s Gender Revealed by Free API Users to Exhibit Bias AIID ↗
A company's AI predicting a person's gender based on their name, email address, or username was reported by its users to show biased and inaccurate results.
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Personal voice assistants struggle with black voices, new study shows AIID ↗
A study found that voice recognition tools from Apple, Amazon, Google, IBM, and Microsoft disproportionately made errors when transcribing black speakers.
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Detroit Police Allegedly Wrongfully Arrested Black Man Due to Purportedly Faulty Facial Recognition Technology AIID ↗
A Black man was allegedly wrongfully detained by the Detroit Police Department as a result of a purportedly false facial recognition technology (FRT) result.
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SN Technologies Reportedly Lied to a New York State School District about Its Facial and Weapon Detection Systems’ Performance AIID ↗
SN Technologies allegedly misled Lockport City Schools about the performance of its AEGIS face and weapons detection systems, downplaying error rates for Black faces and weapon misidentification.
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Tesla Driver on Autopilot Ran a Red Light, Crashing into a Car and Killing Two People in Los Angeles AIID ↗
In 2019, a Tesla Model S driver on Autopilot mode reportedly went through a red light and crashed into a Honda Civic, killing two people in Gardena, Los Angeles.
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Job Screening Service Halts Facial Analysis of Applicants AIID ↗
In January 2021, HireVue removed the controversial AI expression tracking tool from its virtual job interview software.
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Optum Algorithmic Health Risk Scores Reportedly Underestimated Black Patients' Needs AIID ↗
Researchers analyzing an Optum algorithm used by a large academic hospital reportedly found evidence that it tended to under-predict the health care needs of Black patients, which in turn appeared to result in lower prioritization for extra care programs compared with white patients exhibiting similar health profiles.
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Knightscope's Park Patrol Robot Ignored Bystander Pressing Emergency Button to Alert Police about Fight AIID ↗
A Knightscope K5 autonomous "police" robot patrolling Huntington Park, California failed to respond to an onlooker who attempted to activate its emergency alert button when a nearby fight broke out.
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Tesla Model 3 on Autopilot Crashed into a Ford Explorer Pickup, Killing a Fifteen-Year-Old in California AIID ↗
A Tesla Model 3 on Autopilot mode crashed into a pickup on a California freeway, where data and video from the company showed neither Autopilot nor the driver slowing the vehicle until seconds before the crash.
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Length of Stay False Diagnosis Cut Off Insurer's Payment for Treatment of Elderly Woman AIID ↗
An elderly Wisconsin woman was algorithmically determined to have a rapid recovery, an output which the insurer based on to cut off payment for her treatment despite medical notes showing her still experiencing debilitating pain.
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Workday's AI Tools Allegedly Enabled Employers to Discriminate against Applicants of Protected Groups AIID ↗
Workday's algorithmic screening systems were alleged in a lawsuit allowing employers to discriminate against African-Americans, people over 40, and people with disabilities.
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Warehouse robot ruptures can of bear spray and injures workers AIID ↗
Twenty-four Amazon workers in New Jersey were hospitalized after a robot punctured a can of bear repellent spray in a warehouse.
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Sleeping Driver on Tesla AutoPilot AIID ↗
A Tesla Model S remained on autopilot while being operated by a drunk, sleeping operator whose hands were not on the wheel. The police had to slow the car down by slowing in front of the vehicle to activate its 'driver assist' feature .
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Emotion Detection Models Showed Disparate Performance along Racial Lines AIID ↗
Emotion detection tools by Face++ and Microsoft's Face API allegedly scored smiling or defaulted ambiguous facial photos for Black faces as negative emotion more often than for white faces.
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HUD charges Facebook with enabling housing discrimination AIID ↗
In March 2019 the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development charged Facebook with violating the Fair Housing Act by allowing real estate sellers to target advertisements in a discriminatory manner.
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Amazon's Rekognition Falsely Matched Members of Congress to Mugshots AIID ↗
Rekognition's face comparison feature was shown by the ACLU to have misidentified members of congress, and particularly members of colors, as other people who have been arrested using a mugshot database built on publicly available arrest photos.
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Tesla on Autopilot Crashed into Parked Police Car in California AIID ↗
A Tesla sedan on Autopilot mode collided with a parked Laguna Beach Police Department car, resulting in minor injuries for its driver in Laguna Beach, California.
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All Image Captions Produced are Violent AIID ↗
MIT Media Lab researchers create AI-powered "psychopath" named Norman by training a model on "dark corners" of Reddit.
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Uber AV Killed Pedestrian in Arizona AIID ↗
An Uber autonomous vehicle (AV) in autonomous mode struck and killed a pedestrian in Tempe, Arizona.
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Waze Navigates Motorists into Wildfires AIID ↗
Waze, a Google-owned directions app, led California drivers into the 2017 Skirball wildfires as they tried to evacuate the area.
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Las Vegas Self-Driving Bus Involved in Accident AIID ↗
A self-driving public shuttle by Keolis North America and Navya was involved in a collision with a human-driven delivery truck in Las Vegas, Nevada on its first day of service.
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Identical Twins Can Open Apple FaceID Protected Devices AIID ↗
Apple's iPhone FaceID can be opened by an identical twin of the person who has registered their face to unlock the phone.
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Tesla Sedan on Autopilot Reportedly Drove Over Dividing Curb in Washington, Resulting in Minor Vehicle Damage AIID ↗
A Tesla Sedan operating on Autopilot mode was not able to center itself on the road and drove over a yellow dividing curb in Redmond, Washington, causing minor damage to the vehicle’s rear suspension.
Informational only, not legal advice. Verify every claim against the linked official sources and consult qualified counsel before acting.