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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Betfair's Machine-Learning Risk System Reportedly Failed to Flag Luke Ashton Before Gambling-Related Suicide in England AIID ↗
In England, Luke Ashton died by suicide on April 22, 2021 after a longstanding gambling disorder. A 2023 inquest and subsequent Prevention of Future Deaths report found that Betfair had assessed him as a low-risk gambler, did not meaningfully intervene between 2019 and his death, and used an algorithm that failed to flag his escalating gambling activity even as his betting intensified and his financial exposure grew.
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Algorithmic Staffing Failures Linked to Resident Deaths at Leading Assisted-Living Chain Brookdale AIID ↗
Brookdale Senior Living's algorithm-based staffing system, "Service Alignment," reportedly left facilities understaffed, leading to critical incidents. For example, on April 21, 2021, Louise Walker, a resident at Brookdale's Jacksonville facility, died after falling and being left unattended for over two hours. State investigators cited Brookdale for medical neglect. The algorithm has been linked to multiple incidents of neglect, injuries, and deaths, prompting lawsuits.
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Tesla Model S on ACC Crashed into Tree in Texas, Killing Two People AIID ↗
A 2019 Tesla Model S was reportedly traveling on Adaptive Cruise Control (ACC) at high speed before crashing into a tree near The Woodlands in Spring, Texas, killing two people.
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Auto-Insurance Photo-Based Estimation Allegedly Gave Inaccurate Repair Prices Frequently AIID ↗
Auto-insurance companies' photo-based estimation of repair price was alleged by repair shop owners and industry groups as providing inaccurate estimates, causing damaged cars to stay in the shop longer.
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Players Manipulated GPT-3-Powered Game to Generate Sexually Explicit Material Involving Children AIID ↗
Latitude's GPT-3-powered game AI Dungeon was reportedly abused by some players who manipulated its AI to generate sexually explicit stories involving children.
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Black Uber Eats Driver Allegedly Subjected to Excessive Photo Checks and Dismissed via FRT Results AIID ↗
A lawsuit by a former Uber Eats delivery driver alleged the company to have wrongfully dismissed him due to frequent false mismatches of his verification selfies, and discriminated against him via excessive verification checks.
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Tesla on Autopilot Crashed Parked Michigan Police Car on Interstate AIID ↗
A Tesla Model Y on Autopilot collided with a parked Michigan State Police (MSP) car which had its emergency lights on, in Eaton County, Michigan, although no one was injured.
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How French welfare services are creating ‘robo-debt’ AIID ↗
A French welfare office using software to automatically evaluate cases incorrectly notified a woman receiving benefits that she owed €542.
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Dartmouth's Geisel School of Medicine Reportedly Used Canvas Activity Logs to Accuse Students of Cheating AIID ↗
Dartmouth's Geisel School of Medicine reportedly used Canvas learning-management activity logs and an internal analysis process to investigate remote-exam cheating during the 2020–2021 academic year. Seventeen medical students were charged after the school inferred that they accessed course materials during exams, but students and outside technical reviewers said automated Canvas activity may have been misread as intentional misconduct. Dartmouth later dropped the charges.
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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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Amazon Allegedly Forced Deployment of AI-Powered Cameras on Delivery Drivers AIID ↗
Amazon delivery drivers were allegedly forced to consent to algorithmic collection and processing of their location, movement, and biometric data through AI-powered cameras, or be dismissed.
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Year-long AI Surveillance Pilot in Two South Australian Aged Care Facilities Reportedly Overwhelmed Staff with False Positives AIID ↗
Between March 2021 and March 2022, an AI-enabled video and audio monitoring system was trialed in two South Australian aged care facilities. According to an independent audit commissioned by South Australia Health, the system produced over 12,000 false alerts, overwhelming staff and contributing to at least one missed real incident. The report concluded the system did not reach accuracy levels acceptable to staff or management during the pilot.
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Facebook's Automated Tools Failed to Adequately Remove Hate Speech, Violence, and Incitement AIID ↗
Facebook's automated moderation tools were shown by internal documents performing incomparably to human moderators, and accounting for only a small fraction of hate speech, violence, and incitement content removal.
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TikTok’s "For You" Allegedly Pushed Fatal “Blackout” Challenge Videos to Two Young Girls AIID ↗
TikTok’s recommendation algorithm was alleged in a lawsuit to have intentionally and repeatedly pushed videos of the “blackout” challenge onto children’s feeds, incentivizing their participation which ultimately resulted in the death of two young girls.
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Manufacturing Robot Failure Caused Factory Worker's Death in India AIID ↗
A sensor snag resulted in an automotive parts factory robot falling on a factory worker in India
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Facebook’s and Twitter's Automated Content Moderation Reportedly Failed to Effectively Enforce Violation Rules for Small Language Groups AIID ↗
Facebook's and Twitter were not able to sufficiently moderate content of small language groups such as the Balkan languages using AI, allegedly due to the lack of investment in human moderation and difficulty in AI-solution design for the languages.
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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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Facebook's Advertisement Moderation System Allegedly Routinely Misidentified Adaptive Fashion Products as Medical Equipment and Blocked Their Sellers AIID ↗
Facebook platforms' automated ad moderation system falsely classified adaptive fashion products as medical and health care products and services, resulting in regular bans and appeals faced by their retailers.
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AI-Generated Deepfakes Reportedly Derailed Political Career of Florida Official AIID ↗
Sabrina Javellana, a Florida politician, was reportedly targeted with AI-generated deepfake pornography in February 2021, which was spread online, leading to severe emotional distress and her eventual withdrawal from public life.
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California Police Turned on Music to Allegedly Trigger Instagram’s DCMA to Avoid Being Live-Streamed AIID ↗
A police officer in Beverly Hills played copyrighted music on his phone when realizing that his interactions were being recorded on a livestream, allegedly hoping the Instagram's automated copyright detection system to end or mute the stream.
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Queensland Man Allegedly Distributed Purportedly AI-Generated Sexual Posters Falsely Advertising Women for Sex AIID ↗
Queensland police in Australia allege that a man used AI to place at least eight women's faces onto explicit images and displayed posters containing their names, social media accounts, employment details, and false claims that they offered sexual services. The alleged campaign ran from February 2021 through May 2026.
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Remote Proctoring Facial-Detection Software Reportedly Failed to Detect Black Student During Lab Quiz AIID ↗
In February 2021, a Black college student, Amaya Ross, reportedly tried to take a remote biology lab quiz using proctoring software that could not detect her face. Ross said she spent 45 minutes changing lights, shades, position, and background before pointing an LED flashlight at her face so the app would work; the quiz itself was only 30 minutes.
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Amazon’s Search and Recommendation Algorithms Found by Auditors to Have Boosted Products That Contained Vaccine Misinformation AIID ↗
Evidence of the "filter-bubble effect" were found by vaccine-misinformation researchers in Amazon's recommendations, where its algorithms presented users who performed actions on misinformative products with more misinfomative products.
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Facebook's Automated Moderation Mistakenly Flagged Landmark's Name as Offensive AIID ↗
Facebook's automated system mistakenly labelled posts featuring the seafaring landmark Plymouth Hoe as misogynistic.
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Facebook Recommended Military Gear Ads Despite Pause on Weapons Accessories Ads AIID ↗
Facebook’s algorithmic recommendations reportedly continued showing advertisements for gun accessories and military gear, despite Facebook’s halt on weapons accessories ads following the US Capitol attack.
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Israeli Tax Authority Reportedly Used an Opaque Automated System to Issue a Fine, Declining to Explain or Disclose the Underlying Calculation AIID ↗
An Israeli farmer, Moshe Har Shemesh, reportedly received a fine generated by a Tax Authority software system whose calculation officials were allegedly unable to explain. When the farmer reportedly sought access to the program or its source code to understand the basis for the amount, the authority allegedly refused, citing security concerns and the difficulty of extracting the embedded guidelines. The dispute reportedly later moved into legal proceedings focused on whether code and automated d
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Hawaii Police Deployed Robot Dog to Patrol a Homeless Encampment AIID ↗
Honolulu Police Department spent federal pandemic relief funds on a robot dog to take body temperatures and patrol a homeless quarantine encampment which local civil rights advocates criticized as dehumanizing.
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Ongoing Purported AI-Assisted Identity Fraud Enables Unauthorized Access to Western Companies by North Korean IT Workers AIID ↗
North Korean operatives have reportedly used AI-generated identities to secure remote jobs or impersonate employers in order to infiltrate companies. These tactics allegedly support sanctions evasion through wage theft, credential exfiltration, and malware deployment. Workers reportedly use fake resumes, VPNs, and face-altering tools; some deploy malware like OtterCookie after embedding, while others lure targets via spoofed job interviews. AI systems are reportedly used to generate fake resumes
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XPeng Motors Fined For Illegal Collection of Consumers’ Faces Using Facial Recognition Cameras AIID ↗
The Chinese electric vehicle (EV) firm XPeng Motors was fined by local market regulators for illegally collecting in-store customers’ facial images without their consent for six months.
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TikTok’s Content Moderation Allegedly Failed to Adequately Take down Videos Promoting Eating Disorders AIID ↗
Videos promoting eating disorders evaded TikTok's automated violation detection system without difficulty via common misspellings of search terms, bypassing its ban of violating hashtags such as "proana" and "anorexia".
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Robot in Chinese Shopping Mall Fell off the Escalator, Knocking down Passengers AIID ↗
A shopping guide robot deployed by the Fuzhou Zhongfang Marlboro Mall was shown on video allegedly walking to the escalator by itself, falling down, and knocking over passengers, which prompted its suspension.
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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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Korean Chatbot Luda Reportedly Made Offensive Remarks Towards Minority Groups in South Korea AIID ↗
A Korean interactive chatbot was allegedly shown in screenshots to have used derogatory and bigoted language when asked about lesbians, Black people, and people with disabilities.
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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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Japanese Porn Depixelated by Man using Deepfake AIID ↗
A man allegedly unblurred, using deepfake technology, pixelated pornographic images and videos of pornographic actors, which violated Japan’s obscenity law requiring images of genitalia to be obscured.
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Online Trolls Allegedly Abused TikTok’s Automated Content Reporting System to Discriminate against Marginalized Creators AIID ↗
TikTok's automated content reporting system was allegedly abused by online trolls to intentionally misreport content created by users of marginalized groups.
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Brand Safety Tech Firms Falsely Claimed Use of AI, Blocking Ads Using Simple Keyword Lists AIID ↗
Brand safety tech firms falsely claimed use of AI, blocking ads using simple keyword lists.
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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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Court Rules Deliveroo Used 'Discriminatory' Algorithm AIID ↗
In December 2020, an Italian court ruled that Deliveroo’s employee ‘reliability’ algorithm illegally discriminated against workers with legitimate reasons for cancelling shifts.
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Poachers Evaded AI Cameras and Killed Four Rhinos AIID ↗
AI cameras installed by Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife failed to detect poachers when four dehorned rhino carcasses were found.
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Facebook Mistakenly Blocked Small Business Ads AIID ↗
Facebook’s AI mistakenly blocked advertisements by small and struggling businesses, after the company allegedly leaned more on algorithms to monitor ads on the platform with little review from human moderators.
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YouTube Recommendation Reportedly Pushed Election Fraud Content to Skeptics Disproportionately AIID ↗
YouTube's recommendation algorithm allegedly pushed 2020's US Presidential Election fraud content to users most skeptical of the election's legitimacy disproportionately compared to least skeptical users.
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Autonomous Roborace Car Drove Directly into a Wall AIID ↗
An autonomous Roborace car drove itself into a wall in round one of the Season Beta 1.1 race.
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OpenAI’s GPT-3 Reported as Unviable in Medical Tasks by Healthcare Firm AIID ↗
The French digital care company, Nabla, in researching GPT-3’s capabilities for medical documentation, diagnosis support, and treatment recommendation, found its inconsistency and lack of scientific and medical expertise unviable and risky in healthcare applications. This incident has been downgraded to an issue as it does not meet current ingestion criteria.
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Meta Allegedly Used Books3, a Dataset of 191,000 Pirated Books, to Train LLaMA AI AIID ↗
Meta and Bloomberg allegedly used Books3, a dataset containing 191,000 pirated books, to train their AI models, including LLaMA and BloombergGPT, without author consent. Lawsuits from authors such as Sarah Silverman and Michael Chabon claim this constitutes copyright infringement. Books3 includes works from major publishers like Penguin Random House and HarperCollins. Meta argues its AI outputs are not "substantially similar" to the original books, but legal challenges continue.
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AI mistakes referee’s bald head for football — hilarity ensued AIID ↗
In a Scottish soccer match the AI-enabled ball-tracking camera used to livestream the game repeatedly tracked an official’s bald head as though it were the soccer ball.
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Tesla Autopilot Mistakes Red Letters on Flag for Red Traffic Lights AIID ↗
A Tesla Model 3 misidentified flags with "COOP" written vertically on them as traffic lights.
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AI Spam Filters Allegedly Block Legitimate Emails Based on Biased Keyword Detection AIID ↗
AlgorithmWatch tested spam filtering algorithms across Gmail, Yahoo, Outlook, GMX, and LaPoste. Their findings reportedly showed that Microsoft Outlook’s spam filter flagged emails based on specific keywords that led to racial and content-based biases blocking legitimate communications. Emails mentioning Nigeria or containing certain financial and sexual health terms were found to be disproportionately marked as spam.
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#LekkiMassacre: Why Facebook labelled content from October 20 incident ‘false’ AIID ↗
Facebook incorrectly labels content relating to an incident between #EndSARS protestors and the Nigerian army as misinformation.
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Researchers find evidence of racial, gender, and socioeconomic bias in chest X-ray classifiers AIID ↗
A study by the University of Toronto, the Vector Institute, and MIT showed the input databases that trained AI systems used to classify chest X-rays led the systems to show gender, socioeconomic, and racial biases.
Informational only, not legal advice. Verify every claim against the linked official sources and consult qualified counsel before acting.