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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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Tesla Disabled “Rolling Stop” Functionality Associated with the “Aggressive” Driving Mode AIID ↗
The “rolling stop” functionality within the “Aggressive” Full Self Driving (FSD) profile that was released via a Tesla firmware update was recalled and disabled.
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AI attempts to ease fear of robots, blurts out it can’t ‘avoid destroying humankind’ AIID ↗
On September 8, 2020, the Guardian published an op-ed generated by OpenAI’s GPT-3 text generating AI that included threats to destroy humankind. This incident has been downgraded to an issue as it does not meet current ingestion criteria.
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Ireland's 2020 Leaving Certificate Calculated-Grades Model Reportedly Issued Incorrect Scores to Thousands of Students AIID ↗
After Covid-19 disrupted the 2020 Leaving Certificate exams, Ireland's Department of Education and Skills used a calculated-grades model to issue student results on September 7. The Department later confirmed coding errors in how the model handled Junior Cycle data, resulting in incorrect grades. About 6,100 students received upgraded results, and college-offer eligibility had to be reassessed.
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Facebook’s Algorithm Mistook an Advertisement of Onions as Sexual Suggestive Content AIID ↗
Facebook’s content moderation algorithm misidentified and removed a Canadian business’s advertisement containing a photo of onions as products of overtly sexual content, which was later reinstated after review.
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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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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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International Baccalaureate’s 2020 Calculated-Grades Model Reportedly Lowered Students' Scores and College Prospects AIID ↗
After Covid-19 canceled May 2020 exams, the Geneva-based International Baccalaureate reportedly used a calculated-grades model based on coursework, predicted grades, and historical school results to estimate final marks. Students, parents, and teachers reportedly said the opaque model produced unexpectedly low scores, threatening university admissions, scholarships, and study plans across multiple countries.
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Facebook’s Political Ad Detection Reportedly Showed High and Geographically Uneven Error Rates AIID ↗
The performance of Facebook’s political ad detection was revealed by researchers to be imprecise, uneven across countries in errors, and inadequate for preventing systematic violations of political advertising policies.
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NarxCare’s Risk Score Model Allegedly Lacked Validation and Trained on Data with High Risk of Bias AIID ↗
NarxCare's overdose risk algorithm, lacking peer-reviewed validation, uses sensitive data like doctor visits, prescriptions, and possibly genetic information, leading to significant biases against women and Black patients. Factors like sexual abuse and criminal records exacerbate stigmas and disparities, often resulting in unjust denial of necessary pain medication. The newly approved AvertD genetic test shares similar issues, further complicating and potentially harming medical treatment decisi
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YouTube's AI Mistakenly Banned Chess Channel over Chess Language Misinterpretation AIID ↗
YouTube's AI-powered hate speech detection system falsely flagged chess content and banned chess creators allegedly due to its misinterpretation of strategy language such as "black," "white," and "attack" as harmful and dangerous.
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AI translation is jeopardizing Afghan asylum claims AIID ↗
A Pashto-speaking refugee's asylum claim was denied by a US agency for a discrepancy between oral and written recount of an event allegedly due to an error of their automated translation tool which swapped pronouns of her written statement from "I" to "we".
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Starship Delivery Robot Scuffed Bumper of a Resident’s Car in Texas, Allegedly Refusing to Release Footage of the Accident AIID ↗
A Starship food delivery robot crashed into the front bumper of a vehicle waiting at a stoplight intersection in Frisco, Texas, the video of which the company reportedly refused to release.
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Tesla on Autopilot Crashed into Flipped Truck on Taiwan Highway AIID ↗
On a highway in Taiwan, a Tesla Sedan, reportedly operating on Autopilot mode, crashed into a large overturned truck, barely missing a pedestrian.
Informational only, not legal advice. Verify every claim against the linked official sources and consult qualified counsel before acting.