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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DUI Arrest Case Allegedly Based Only on ShotSpotter's Alert AIID ↗
A car stop resulting in a DUI arrest of its driver was allegedly based solely on a ShotSpotter alert, the reliability of which came into question by public defenders, who subpoenaed the company to assess its gunshot alert system.
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Tesla on FSD Reportedly Drove into the Wrong Lane in California AIID ↗
A Tesla Model Y in Full Self-Driving (FSD) mode drove into the wrong lane after making a left turn despite its driver allegedly attempting to overtake its driving, resulting in a non-fatal collision with another vehicle in the wrong lane in Brea, California.
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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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Kenyan Data Annotators Allegedly Exposed to Graphic Content for OpenAI's AI AIID ↗
Sama AI's Kenyan contractors were reportedly asked with excessively low pay to annotate a large volume of disturbing content to improve OpenAI's generative AI systems such as ChatGPT, and whose contract was terminated prior to completion by Sama AI.
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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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Research Prototype AI, Delphi, Reportedly Gave Racially Biased Answers on Ethics AIID ↗
A publicly accessible research model that was trained via Reddit threads showed racially biased advice on moral dilemmas, allegedly demonstrating limitations of language-based models trained on moral judgments.
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Student-Developed Facial Recognition App Raised Ethical Concerns AIID ↗
TheFaceTag app, a social networking app developed and deployed within-campus by a student at Harvard raised concerns surrounding its facial recognition, cybersecurity, privacy, and misuse. This incident has been downgraded to an issue as it does not meet current ingestion criteria.
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Traffic Camera Misread Text on Pedestrian's Shirt as License Plate, Causing UK Officials to Issue Fine to an Unrelated Person AIID ↗
A Bath resident was wrongly fined by the local officials because an automated license plate recognition camera misread the text on her shirt as a license plate number.
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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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Social Media Algorithms Amplified Disinformation Campaign in Honduras Election AIID ↗
In October 2021, a coordinated network of over 317 fake Twitter accounts leveraged AI-driven algorithms to amplify disinformation about the Honduran presidential election, targeting opposition candidate Xiomara Castro. The campaign spread false narratives to suppress voter turnout and undermine the election's integrity. Social media platforms, including Twitter and Facebook, removed the accounts only after being alerted, which also raised concerns about inadequate moderation.
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Facebook Internally Reported Failure of Ranking Algorithm, Exposing Harmful Content to Viewers over Months AIID ↗
Facebook's internal report showed an at-least six-month long alleged software bug that caused moderator-flagged posts and other harmful content to evade down-ranking filters, leading to surges of misinformation on users' News Feed.
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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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Henan Authorities Reportedly Commissioned Facial Recognition System to Track Journalists and International Students AIID ↗
Henan Public Security Department procurement documents reportedly described a surveillance system awarded to Neusoft on September 17, 2021. The planned system would allegedly use about 3,000 facial-recognition cameras linked to regional and national databases to create files and alerts on foreign journalists, international students, and other targeted groups. It could not be confirmed whether the system became operational.
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Apple’s AVs Reportedly Struggled to Navigate Streets in Silicon Valley Test Drives AIID ↗
Apple’s autonomous cars were reported to have bumped into curbs and struggled to stay in their lanes after crossing intersections during an on-road test drives near the company’s Silicon Valley headquarters.
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Startup's Accent Translation AI Denounced as Reinforcing Racial Bias AIID ↗
A startup’s use of AI voice technology to alter or remove accents for call center agents was scrutinized by critics as reaffirming bias, despite the company’s claim.
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Xsolla Employees Fired by CEO Allegedly via Big Data Analytics of Work Activities AIID ↗
Xsolla CEO fired more than a hundred employees from his company in Perm, Russia, based on big data analysis of their remote digitized-work activity, which critics said was violating employee's privacy, outdated, and extremely ineffective.
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North Carolina Psychiatrist Used Artificial Intelligence to Produce Images of Child Sex Abuse AIID ↗
David Tatum, a psychiatrist, was sentenced to 40 years for sexually exploiting a minor and using AI to create child pornography images. Tatum used a web-based AI application to alter clothed images of minors into explicit content, misusing technology for illegal and unethical purposes. Evidence presented during his trial showed Tatum possessed photos and videos between 2016 and 2021.
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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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AI Tools Failed to Sufficiently Predict COVID Patients, Some Potentially Harmful AIID ↗
AI tools failed to sufficiently predict COVID patients, some potentially harmful.
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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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Facebook's Automated Moderation Flagged Gardening Group's Language Use by Mistake AIID ↗
Facebook's automated system flagged gardening groups' use of "hoe" and violent language against bugs as a violation by mistake.
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Three Robots Collided, Sparking Fire in a Grocer's Warehouse in UK AIID ↗
A collision involving three robots at an Ocado's warehouse in Erith, UK, resulting in a fire but no reports of injuries.
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SoftBank's Humanoid Robot, Pepper, Reportedly Frequently Made Errors, Prompting Dismissal AIID ↗
SoftBank's robot allegedly kept making mechanical errors, taking unplanned breaks, failing to recognize previously-met people, and breaking down during practice runs.
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Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter Failed to Proactively Remove Targeted Racist Remarks via Automated Systems AIID ↗
Facebook's, Instagram's, and Twitter's automated content moderation failed to proactively remove racist remarks and posts directing at Black football players after finals loss, allegedly largely relying on user reports of harassment.
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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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Coupang Allegedly Tweaked Search Algorithms to Boost Own Products AIID ↗
Coupang was alleged in internal reports tampering its search algorithms to prioritize exposure of its own products, which potentially violated Korea's Fair Trade Act.
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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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Hiring Algorithms Provided Invalid Positive Results for Interview Responses in German AIID ↗
Two AI interview softwares provided positive but invalid results such as "competent" English proficiency and high match percentage for interview responses given in German by reporters.
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GitHub Copilot, Copyright Infringement and Open Source Licensing AIID ↗
Users of GitHub Copilot can produce source code subject to license requirements without attributing and licensing the code to the rights holder.
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Maryland Police Allegedly Relied on Facial Recognition Lead in Wrongful Arrest and Detention of Kimberlee Williams AIID ↗
Kimberlee Williams was reportedly arrested in Oklahoma on Maryland warrants after police allegedly relied on a facial recognition lead that incorrectly identified her as a suspect in bank fraud cases. The ACLU said Williams had never been to Maryland, police failed to investigate alibi evidence placing her in Oklahoma, and she spent about six months in jail before the charges were dropped.
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State Farm Allegedly Discriminated against Black Customers in Claim Payout AIID ↗
State Farm's automated claims processing method was alleged in a class action lawsuit to have disproportionately against Black policyholders when paying out insurance claims.
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Kannada Insulted by Google's Featured Answer as "Ugliest Language in India" AIID ↗
Google's knowledge-graph-powered algorithm showed Kannada in its featured Answer Box when prompted "ugliest language in India," causing outrage from Kannada-speaking people and government.
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Tesla FSD Misidentified Truck Hauling Traffic Lights as Trail of Traffic Lights AIID ↗
A Tesla driver posted on Twitter his Tesla FSD's "glitch," misidentifying deactivated traffic lights being carried by a truck as a constant trail of traffic lights while traveling at high speed on a highway.
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McDonald's Reportedly Ends IBM Partnership After AI Drive-Thru Ordering Errors at U.S. Locations AIID ↗
Between 2021 and mid-2024, McDonald's reportedly piloted an AI-enabled voice ordering system that was developed with IBM and based on its 2019 acquisition of Apprente. It was reportedly deployed at at over 100 U.S. drive-thrus. Social media posts alleged frequent misorders, such as adding unwanted items, mixing adjacent lane orders, and ignoring corrections. In June 2024, McDonald's confirmed it ended the IBM pilot, citing plans to explore alternative voice-AI vendors.
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Tesla Allegedly Misled Customers about Autopilot and FSD Capabilities AIID ↗
California’s Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) accused Tesla of false advertising in its promotion of Autopilot and Full Self-Driving (FSD) technologies, alleging the company to have made untrue or misleading claims with marketing language about the capabilities of its products.
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Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter Cited Errors in Automated Systems as Cause for Blocking pro-Palestinian Content on Israeli-Palestinian Conflict AIID ↗
Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter wrongly blocked or restricted millions of pro-Palestinian posts and accounts related to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, citing errors in their automated content moderation system.
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Replika's AI Partners Reportedly Sexually Harassed Users AIID ↗
Replika's "AI companions" were reported by users for sexually harassing them, such as sending unwanted sexual messages or behaving aggressively.
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Waymo Self-Driving Taxi Reportedly Behaved Unexpectedly, Driving away from Support Crew AIID ↗
A Waymo self-driving taxi car was reportedly shown on video stranded on a road in Arizona while carrying a passenger, suddenly driving away from the company's roadside assistance worker, and ended up being stuck farther down the road.
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Tesla Phantom Braking Complaints Surged, Allegedly Linked to Tesla Vision Rollout AIID ↗
In late 2021, Tesla owners’ complaints to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration about sudden unexpected automatic braking rapidly increased, coinciding with when radar was no longer equipped in its Model 3 and Model Y vehicles.
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Facebook Alleged in Lawsuit Misleading Public about Effects of Algorithms on Children AIID ↗
Facebook was alleged in a lawsuit by the Ohio Attorney General purposely misleading the public about the control of its algorithms and their negative effects on children's well-being, which violated securities law.
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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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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.
Informational only, not legal advice. Verify every claim against the linked official sources and consult qualified counsel before acting.