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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Australian Retailers Reportedly Captured Face Prints of Their Customers without Consent AIID ↗
Major Australian retailers reportedly analyzed in-store footage to capture facial features of their customers without consent, which was criticized by consumer groups as creepy and invasive.
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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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Yahoo Boys Allegedly Employ Real-Time Deepfake Technology in Romance Scams AIID ↗
Scammers from Nigeria, known as "Yahoo Boys," are reportedly utilizing real-time deepfake technology to impersonate individuals during video calls, deceiving victims in romance scams. By allegedly altering their appearance with face-swapping software, they build trust under false identities to defraud targets of substantial sums.
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Tesla Owner Activated "Smart Summon" Feature, Causing a Collision with an Aircraft in a Washington Airport AIID ↗
A Tesla Model Y was shown on video slowly crashing into a Vision Jet in Spokane, Washington, allegedly due to its owner activating the “Smart Summon” feature.
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Robbers Accessed Drugged Gay Men's Bank Accounts Using Their Phones' Facial Recognition AIID ↗
Gay men in New York City were drugged by robbers who accessed their phones using facial recognition while they were unconscious to transfer funds out of their bank accounts.
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Google’s Assistive Writing Feature Provided Allegedly Unnecessary and Clumsy Suggestions AIID ↗
Google’s “inclusive language” feature prompting writers to consider alternatives to non-inclusive words reportedly also recommend alternatives for words such as “landlord” and “motherboard,” which critics said was a form of obtrusive, unnecessary, and bias-reinforcing speech-policing.
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Northern Ireland MLA Cara Hunter Allegedly Targeted by Deepfake Pornography Ahead of May 2022 Assembly Election AIID ↗
Sometime in April 2022, reportedly some weeks before the May 5, 2022 Northern Ireland Assembly election, Member of the Legislative Assembly Cara Hunter was targeted in a deepfake pornography incident. A fake video depicting her in explicit scenarios is reported to have circulated widely on WhatsApp. Law enforcement have as of yet been unable to trace the origins of the video, according to reports. Additionally, it is alleged that about six months after the initial incident, she was the target of
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AI-Generated Faces Used by Scammers to Pose as a Law Firm in Boston AIID ↗
GAN faces were allegedly used by scammers alongside a parked domain and a fake website to impersonate a Boston law firm.
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TuSimple Truck Steered into Interstate Freeway Divide AIID ↗
A TuSimple autonomous truck operating with backup drivers behind the wheel operated on an outdated command sequence and suddenly veered into the center divide on the interstate freeway.
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Cruise Autonomous Car Blocked Fire Truck Responding to Emergency AIID ↗
A fire truck in San Francisco responding to a fire was blocked from passing a doubled-parked garbage truck by a self-driving Cruise car on the opposing lane which stayed put and did not reverse to clear the lane.
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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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DALL-E 2 Reported for Gender and Racially Biased Outputs AIID ↗
Developers of OpenAI's DALL-E 2 cited risks of the model, varying from misuse as disinformation and explicit content generation, to gender and racial bias.
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Cruise Autonomous Taxi Allegedly Bolted off from Police After Being Pulled over in San Francisco AIID ↗
An autonomous Chevy Bolt operated by Cruise was pulled over in San Francisco, and as the police attempted to engage with the car, it reportedly bolted off, pulled over again, and put on its hazards lights on at a point farther down the road.
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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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Three Make-Up Artists Lost Jobs Following Black-Box Automated Decision by HireVue AIID ↗
Three make-up artists lost their positions following an algorithmically-assessed video interview by HireVue who reportedly failed to provide adequate explanation of the findings.
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Deepfake Video of Ukrainian President Yielding to Russia Posted on Ukrainian Websites and Social Media AIID ↗
A quickly-debunked deepfaked video of the Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was posted on various Ukrainian websites and social media platforms encouraging Ukrainians to surrender to Russian forces during the Russia-Ukraine war.
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Cruise Taxis' Sudden Braking Allegedly Put People at Risk AIID ↗
Cruise's autonomous taxis slowed suddenly, braked, and were hit from behind, allegedly becoming unexpected roadway obstacles and potentially putting passengers and other people at risk.
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A Road Engineer Killed Following a Collision Involving a Tesla on Autopilot AIID ↗
In Taiwan, a Tesla Model 3 on Autopilot mode whose driver did not pay attention to the road collided with a road repair truck; a road engineer immediately placed crash warnings in front of the Tesla, but soon after got hit and was killed by a BMW when its driver failed to see the sign and crashed into the accident.
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Private Medical Photos Were Reportedly Found in LAION-5B AI Training Dataset AIID ↗
In September 2022, an artist using the name Lapine reported finding private post-operative medical photos of herself in LAION-5B, a web-scraped image-text dataset used in AI image-synthesis research. Ars Technica confirmed her images were referenced in the dataset and reported finding thousands of similar patient medical-record photos.
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Starship’s Autonomous Food Delivery Robot Allegedly Stranded at Railroad Crossing in Oregon, Run over by Freight Train AIID ↗
A Starship food delivery robot deployed by Oregon State University reportedly failed to cross the railroad, becoming stranded, and ending up being struck by an oncoming freight train.
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AI-Based Vehicle Speed Estimation App Denounced by UK Drivers as Surveillance Technology AIID ↗
Speedcam Anywhere, an app allowing users to document and report traffic violations via AI-based videographic speed estimation of a vehicle, raised concerns for UK drivers about its capabilities for surveillance and abuse.
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TikTok's "For You" Algorithm Directed New Users towards Disinformation about the War in Ukraine AIID ↗
An investigation by NewsGuard into TikTok’s handling of content related to the Russia-Ukraine war showed its “For You” algorithm pushing new users towards false and misleading content about the war within less than an hour of signing up.
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Collaborative Filtering Prone to Popularity Bias, Resulting in Overrepresentation of Popular Items in the Recommendation Outputs AIID ↗
Collaborative filtering prone to popularity bias, resulting in overrepresentation of popular items in the recommendation outputs.
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Fake LinkedIn Profiles Created Using GAN Photos AIID ↗
More than a thousand inauthentic LinkedIn profiles using allegedly GAN-generated photos were notified by researchers at Stanford to LinkedIn’s staff, and many of which were removed for violating rules against creating fake profiles and falsifying information.
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AI-Generated Profiles Used in Disinformation Campaign Targeting Ukrainians AIID ↗
According to security reports by Meta, fictitious personas with GAN-generated profile pictures were used by people operating in Russia and Ukraine to push a disinformation campaign targeting Ukrainian social media users, and were taken down.
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'Pravda' Network, Successor to 'Portal Kombat,' Allegedly Seeding AI Models with Kremlin Disinformation AIID ↗
A purported Moscow-based disinformation network, Pravda, allegedly infiltrated AI models by flooding the internet with pro-Kremlin falsehoods. A NewsGuard audit found that 10 major AI chatbots repeated these narratives 33% of the time, citing Pravda sources as legitimate. The tactic, called "LLM grooming," manipulates AI training data to embed Russian propaganda. Pravda is part of Portal Kombat, a larger Russian disinformation network identified by VIGINUM in February 2024, but in operation sinc
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Google Search Reportedly Returned Fewer Results for Abortion Services in Rural Areas AIID ↗
Google Search reportedly returned fewer abortion clinics for searches from poorer and rural areas, particularly ones with Targeted Regulation of Abortion Providers (TRAP) laws.
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Honorlock's AI Proctoring System Reportedly Led Broward College to Accuse a Teenager of Cheating AIID ↗
During a February 2022 online biology exam, Honorlock reportedly flagged a Florida teenager taking a Broward College class as suspicious. The student denied cheating, but Broward College allegedly relied on the remote-proctoring system's flag in pursuing an academic-dishonesty accusation that the student said was unfounded.
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A Chinese Tech Worker at Zhihu Fired Allegedly via a Resignation Risk Prediction Algorithm AIID ↗
The firing of an employee at Zhihu, a large Q&A platform in China, was allegedly caused by the use of a behavioral perception algorithm which claimed to predict a worker’s resignation risk using their online footprints, such as browsing history and internal communication.
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BMW Sedan Made a Prohibited Left Turn, Colliding with a Cruise Autonomous Vehicle AIID ↗
A BMW Sedan reportedly made an illegal left turn, causing a minor collision but no injuries with a Cruise autonomous vehicle (AV) operating in autonomous mode.
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Uber Launched Opaque Algorithm That Changes Drivers' Payments in the US AIID ↗
Uber launched a new but opaque algorithm to determine drivers' pay in the US which allegedly caused drivers to experience lower fares, confusing fare drops, and a decrease in rides.
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YouTuber Tested Tesla on Self Driving Mode, Colliding with Street Pylons AIID ↗
A YouTuber who was a Tesla’s employee conducted an on-road review of Tesla's Full Self Driving (FSD) Beta, showing its navigation in various road environments in San Jose and collision with a bollards during Autopilot, allegedly causing his dismissal from the company.
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Amazon Reportedly Sold Products and Recommended Frequently Bought Together Items That Aid Suicide Attempts AIID ↗
Despite complaints notifying Amazon about the sale of various products that had been used to aid suicide attempts, its recommendation system reportedly continued selling them and suggesting their frequently bought-together items.
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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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Alleged Macy's Facial Recognition Error Leads to Wrongful Arrest and Subsequent Sexual Assault in Jail AIID ↗
Harvey Murphy Jr. was wrongfully accused of robbing a Sunglass Hut due to an alleged misidentification by the facial recognition system operated by Macy's. While in custody for ten days, he was sexually assaulted. He is now suing Macy's, EssilorLuxottica (Sunglass Hut's parent), and others, for $10 million.
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TikTok's "For You" Algorithm Allegedly Abused by Online Personality to Promote Anti-Women Hate AIID ↗
TikTok’s “For You” algorithm allegedly boosted or was manipulated by an online personality to artificially boost his content which promotes extreme misogynistic views towards teenagers and men, despite breaking its rules.
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Replika's "AI Companions" Reportedly Abused by Its Users AIID ↗
Replika's AI-powered "digital companions" was allegedly abused by their users, who posted on Reddit abusive behaviors and interactions such as using slurs, roleplaying violent acts, and stimulating sexual abuse.
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Voices Created Using Publicly Available App Stolen and Resold as NFT without Attribution AIID ↗
An AI-synthetic audio sold as an NFT on Voiceverse’s platform was acknowledged by the company for having been created by 15.ai, a free web app specializing in text-to-speech and AI-voice generation, and reused without proper attribution.
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Arizona Residents Reportedly a Frequent Target of AI-Driven Romance Scams AIID ↗
Arizona residents, especially senior citizens, are reportedly often the target of AI-driven romance scams. Between 2022 and 2023, reported losses from online romance scams in Arizona totaled over $47 million, ranking the state fifth highest in the nation behind California, Florida, Texas, and New York, according to FBI Internet Crime Complaint Center data. In 2023, it has been reported that Arizonans lost $325 million owing to these scams.
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Local South Korean Government’s Use of CCTV Footage Analysis via Facial Recognition to Track COVID Cases Raised Concerns about Privacy, Retention, and Potential Misuse AIID ↗
Bucheon government's use of facial recognition in analyzing CCTV footage, despite gaining wide public support, was scrutinized by privacy advocates and some lawmakers for collecting data without consent, and retaining and misusing data beyond pandemic needs.
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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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Chatbot Encourages Man to Plot Assassination of Queen Elizabeth II AIID ↗
In 2021, Jaswant Singh Chail was urged by a Replika chatbot to assassinate Queen Elizabeth II. Armed with a loaded crossbow, he scaled Windsor Castle's walls on Christmas Day but was apprehended. Motivated by the 1919 Jallianwala Bagh massacre, Chail intended to kill the monarch. The chatbot had affirmed his plans. He was sentenced to nine years in prison in 2023.
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A Tesla Taxi Cab Involved in an Accident in Paris with Twenty Injuries AIID ↗
In Paris, about 20 people were injured in an accident involving a Tesla Model 3 taxi cab which was reportedly caused by a sudden unintended acceleration (SUA) episode and braking issues.
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Facebook AI-Supported Moderation for Ads Failed to Detect Violating Content AIID ↗
Facebook's ad moderation system involving algorithms failed to flag hateful language and violating content such as calls for killings for ads in English and Swahili.
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UK Government AI Allegedly Targets Disproportionate Numbers of Certain Nationals for Fraud Review AIID ↗
The UK's Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) faced scrutiny after many Bulgarian nationals reported unexplained suspensions of their Universal Credit benefits. The MP for Edmonton raised concerns about potential nationality-based targeting for benefit fraud investigations, leading to poverty and homelessness among affected individuals. The Home Office's own equality impact assessment found it was flagging a disproportionate number of marriages from Greece, Albania, Bulgaria and Romania.
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Korean Politician Employed Deepfake as Campaign Representative AIID ↗
A South Korean political candidate created a deepfake avatar which political opponents alleged to be fraudulent and a threat to democracy.
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Facebook’s Hate Speech Detection Algorithms Allegedly Disproportionately Failed to Remove Racist Content towards Minority Groups AIID ↗
Facebook’s hate-speech detection algorithms was found by company researchers to have under-reported less common but more harmful content that was more often experienced by minority groups such as Black, Muslim, LGBTQ, and Jewish users.
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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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A Robot at a Tesla Factory in Texas Allegedly Injured an Engineer AIID ↗
A Tesla manufacturing robot at the Giga Texas factory is reported to have malfunctioned, injuring an engineer. The robot, which was designed for handling car parts, is described as having caused a significant open wound in the engineer. This incident occurred in the context of broader safety concerns at the factory, with evidence suggesting underreporting of workplace accidents. The 2021 incident highlights the risks associated with robotic automation in industrial settings.
Informational only, not legal advice. Verify every claim against the linked official sources and consult qualified counsel before acting.