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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Cruise AV Ran Over Fire Hose in Active Fire Scene AIID ↗
A Cruise AV ran over a fire hose that was being used in an active firefighting area.
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DALL-E Mini Reportedly Reinforced or Exacerbated Societal Biases in Its Outputs as Gender and Racial Stereotypes AIID ↗
Publicly deployed open-source model DALL-E Mini was acknowledged by its developers and found by its users to have produced images which reinforced racial and gender biases.
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Cruise’s Self-Driving Car Involved in a Multiple-Injury Collision at an San Francisco Intersection AIID ↗
A Cruise autonomous vehicle was involved in a crash at an intersection in San Francisco when making a left turn in front of a Toyota Prius traveling in an opposite direction, which caused occupants in both cars to sustain injuries.
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False Negatives for Water Quality-Associated Beach Closures AIID ↗
Toronto’s use of AI predictive modeling (AIPM) which had replaced existing methodology as the only determiner of beach water quality raised concerns about its accuracy, after allegedly conflicting results were found by a local water advocacy group using traditional means.
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YouTuber Built, Made Publicly Available, and Released Model Trained on Toxic 4chan Posts as Prank AIID ↗
A YouTuber built GPT-4chan, a model based on OpenAI’s GPT-J and trained on posts containing racism, misogyny, and antisemitism collected from 4chan’s “politically incorrect” board, which he made publicly available, and deployed as multiple bots posting thousands of messages on the same 4chan board as a prank.
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Remotely Operated Taser-Armed Drones Proposed by Taser Manufacturer as Defense for School Shootings in the US AIID ↗
Axon Enterprise considered development of remotely operated drones capable of tasering at a target a short distance away as a defense mechanism for mass shootings, despite its internal AI ethics board’s previous objection and condemnation as dangerous and fantastical.
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SafeRent AI Screening Tool Allegedly Discriminated Against Housing Voucher Applicants AIID ↗
SafeRent’s AI-powered tenant screening tool used credit history and non-rental-related debts to assign scores, disproportionately penalizing Black and Hispanic renters and those using housing vouchers. The reported discriminatory housing outcomes violated the Fair Housing Act and Massachusetts law. A class action lawsuit (Louis, et al. v. SafeRent Solutions, et al.) resulted in a $2.275 million settlement and changes to SafeRent’s practices.
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Cruise's Self-Driving Cars Allegedly Lost Connection to Their Server, Causing Traffic Blockages in San Francisco AIID ↗
Cruise’s autonomous vehicles were shown on video stopping in the middle of the road and causing blockages in San Francisco, as they were disabled allegedly due to lost connection to their company’s server.
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Fatal Crash Involving Tesla Full Self-Driving Claims Employee's Life AIID ↗
A Tesla employee, Hans von Ohain, was killed in a crash while allegedly using the Full Self-Driving feature. The car failed to navigate mountain curves, leading to a fatal collision, possibly making von Ohain the first known fatality of the Full Self-Driving feature.
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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.
Informational only, not legal advice. Verify every claim against the linked official sources and consult qualified counsel before acting.