Browse AI incidents

6 incidents · subdomain: Power centralization and unfair distribution of benefits

1. 17 Mar 2025

   #1001 · 2 reports

   LLM Scrapers Allegedly Target Multiple Open Source Projects Disrupting the FOSS Ecosystem AIID ↗

   In mid-March 2025, KDE's GitLab infrastructure was reportedly disrupted by aggressive AI web scrapers originating from Alibaba IP ranges. These bots allegedly ignored robots.txt and spoofed browser headers, which in turn purportedly overwhelmed the site and caused outages for developers. Similar incidents reportedly affected other FOSS projects like GNOME, SourceHut, and Fedora. The scraping is allegedly tied to large language model training, and reportedly imposes real costs and delays.

   Deployer: Alibaba, Generative Ai Developers · Developer: Alibaba, Generative Ai Developers · Harmed: Sysadmins, Sourcehut, Read The Docs, Linux Weekly News, Kde, Inkscape, Gnome, Foss Projects And Communities, Fedora, Diaspora, Curl

   Socioeconomic & Environmental... Power centralization and unfair di...
2. 4 Jul 2021

   #435 · 4 reports

   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.

   Deployer: Coupang · Developer: Coupang · Harmed: Coupang Suppliers, Coupang Customers

   Socioeconomic & Environmental... Power centralization and unfair di... AI tangible harm event KR
3. 1 Aug 2018

   #251 · 3 reports

   Amazon Allegedly Tweaked Search Algorithm to Boost Its Own Products AIID ↗

   Amazon tweaked product-search algorithm to boost and guide customers towards more profitable in-house products instead of showing mainly most-relevant and best-selling listings, which its internal engineers and lawyers alleged to violate company’s best-for-customer principle.

   Deployer: Amazon · Developer: Amazon · Harmed: Small Businesses On Amazon, Amazon Customers

   Socioeconomic & Environmental... Power centralization and unfair di...
4. 15 Jan 2018

   #403 · 2 reports

   Gmail’s Inbox Sorting System Reportedly Reduced Visibility of Political Emails and Campaign Calls-to-Action AIID ↗

   Google's Gmail inbox sorting algorithm for political emails was reported by presidential candidates, nonprofits, and advocacy groups for having negative impact on call-to-actions, allegedly suppressing donations and impeding political actions.

   Deployer: Google · Developer: Google · Harmed: Political Organizations, Political Candidates

   Socioeconomic & Environmental... Power centralization and unfair di...
5. 27 Sep 2017

   #370 · 1 report

   Google Fined for Changing Shopping Algorithms in EU to Favor Own Service AIID ↗

   Google was fined by EU Commission for changing its shopping algorithms in Europe to favor its own comparison service over competitors, resulting in anti-competitive effects.

   Deployer: Google · Developer: Google · Harmed: Google'S Competitor Shopping Services

   Socioeconomic & Environmental... Power centralization and unfair di...
6. 31 Dec 2016

   #437 · 4 reports

   Amazon India Allegedly Rigged Search Results to Promote Own Products AIID ↗

   Amazon India allegedly copied products and rigged search algorithm to boost its own brands in search ranking, violating antitrust laws.

   Deployer: Amazon India · Developer: Amazon India · Harmed: Small Businesses In India, Amazon Customers In India

   Socioeconomic & Environmental... Power centralization and unfair di...

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