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.
Filter incidents (1 active)
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Washington State DOL's AI Phone System Reportedly Failed to Provide Spanish-Language Service to Callers Requesting Spanish AIID ↗
For months, callers to the Washington State Department of Licensing who selected Spanish reportedly received AI-generated English responses spoken with a Spanish accent rather than actual Spanish-language service. The agency reportedly apologized and said staff configuration caused the error, which purportedly created accessibility problems for callers seeking language support.
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UK Facial Recognition System Reportedly Exhibits Higher False Positive Rates for Black and Asian Subjects AIID ↗
UK government testing of police facial recognition technology reportedly found significantly higher false positive identification rates for Black and Asian individuals compared with white subjects, with particularly elevated error rates for Black women. The findings reportedly emerged from analysis of retrospective searches of the police national database and were disclosed by the Home Office amid plans for expanded national deployment.
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Infinite Campus AI-Driven Student Risk Model Leads to Cuts in Support for Nevada's Low-Income Schools AIID ↗
An AI system developed by Infinite Campus and deployed by Nevada to identify at-risk students reportedly led to a sharp reduction in the number classified as needing support, dropping from 270,000 to 65,000. The reclassification allegedly caused significant budget cuts in schools serving low-income populations. The drastic reduction in identified at-risk students reportedly left thousands of vulnerable children without resources and support.
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Police Use of Facial Recognition Software Causes Wrongful Arrests Without Defendant Knowledge AIID ↗
Police departments across the U.S. have used facial recognition software to identify suspects in criminal investigations, leading to multiple false arrests and wrongful detentions. The software's unreliability, especially in identifying people of color, has resulted in misidentifications that were not disclosed to defendants. In some cases, individuals were unaware that facial recognition played a role in their arrest, violating their legal rights and leading to unjust detentions.
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Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) Algorithm Wrongly Flags 200,000 for Housing Benefit Fraud AIID ↗
A Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) algorithm wrongly flagged over 200,000 UK housing benefit claims as high risk, resulting in unnecessary investigations. Two-thirds of these flagged claims were legitimate, causing wasted public funds and stress for claimants. Despite initial success in a pilot, the algorithm's real-world performance fell short. This incident highlights the risks of overreliance on automated systems in welfare administration.
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Facewatch Reported to Have Wrongfully Flagged Home Bargains Customer as Shoplifter AIID ↗
A facial-recognition software used by the British variety store Home Bargains is alleged to have misidentified "Sara" as a shoplifter, leading to staff searching her bag, escorting her from the premises, and banning her from the store. After, Facewatch is reported to have admitted its error to Sara. Facewatch is used by a number of different British stores.
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Whisper Speech-to-Text AI Reportedly Found to Create Violent Hallucinations AIID ↗
Researchers at Cornell reportedly found that OpenAI's Whisper, a speech-to-text system, can hallucinate violent language and fabricated details, especially with long pauses in speech, such as from those with speech impairments. Analyzing 13,000 clips, they determined 1% contained harmful hallucinations. These errors pose risks in hiring, legal trials, and medical documentation. The study suggests improving model training to reduce these hallucinations for diverse speaking patterns.
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London Metropolitan Police's Facial Recognition Technology Reportedly Misidentified Shaun Thompson as Suspect Leading to Arrest AIID ↗
Sometime in February 2024, Shaun Thompson is reported to have walked by one of the London Metropolitan Police's facial recognition technology vans near London Bridge. He was almost immediately arrested because the technology is reported to have misidentified him as a suspect in an unrelated and unspecified crime.
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Facial Recognition Misidentifies Pregnant Woman Leading to False Arrest in Detroit AIID ↗
Porcha Woodruff was arrested and subsequently had charges dropped due to an unreliable facial recognition match. Despite being visibly pregnant, she was implicated in a robbery and carjacking based on an outdated photo used in a lineup.
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False Arrest of Georgia Man Due to Louisiana Police's Faulty Facial Recognition Technology AIID ↗
The Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office in Louisiana relied on facial recognition technology to identify suspects for the alleged theft of luxury purses, resulting in a man in Georgia, Randal Reid, being arrested. However, the technology produced a false match, leading to Reid's arrest and subsequent release. This incident highlights the potential pitfalls of facial recognition technology in law enforcement.
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Facial Recognition Error Reportedly Leads to Wrongful Arrest of Georgia Man and $200K Settlement in Louisiana AIID ↗
In November 2022, Randal "Quran" Reid was arrested in Georgia based on warrants from Louisiana that reportedly stemmed from a purportedly faulty facial recognition match using Clearview AI. Despite reportedly having never visited Louisiana, Reid was jailed for six days before authorities withdrew the warrants. No corroborating evidence had been gathered, and the technology's use was omitted from legal documents. In May 2025, Jefferson Parish settled with Reid for $200,000 in a federal civil righ
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Louisiana Police Wrongfully Arrested Black Man Using False Face Match AIID ↗
Louisiana police reportedly used a false facial recognition match and secured an arrest warrant for a Black man for thefts he did not commit.
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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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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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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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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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Remote Proctoring Facial-Detection Software Reportedly Failed to Detect Black Student During Lab Quiz AIID ↗
In February 2021, a Black college student, Amaya Ross, reportedly tried to take a remote biology lab quiz using proctoring software that could not detect her face. Ross said she spent 45 minutes changing lights, shades, position, and background before pointing an LED flashlight at her face so the app would work; the quiz itself was only 30 minutes.
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Proctoring Algorithm in Online California Bar Exam Flagged an Unusually High Number of Alleged Cheaters AIID ↗
The proctoring algorithm used in a California bar exam cited a third of thousands of applicants as cheaters, resulting in allegations where exam takers were instructed to prove otherwise without seeing their incriminating video evidence.
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Researchers find evidence of racial, gender, and socioeconomic bias in chest X-ray classifiers AIID ↗
A study by the University of Toronto, the Vector Institute, and MIT showed the input databases that trained AI systems used to classify chest X-rays led the systems to show gender, socioeconomic, and racial biases.
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UK passport photo checker shows bias against dark-skinned women AIID ↗
UK passport photo checker shows bias against dark-skinned women.
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Facebook’s Moderation Algorithm Banned Users for Historical Evidence of Slavery AIID ↗
Facebook’s automated content moderation was acknowledged by a company spokesperson to have erroneously censored and banned Australian users from posting an article containing a 1890s photo of Aboriginal men in chains over nudity as historical evidence of slavery in Australia.
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University of Toronto's ProctorU Deployment Reportedly Disadvantaged BIPOC Students During Exam Check-Ins AIID ↗
University of Toronto students reported that ProctorU and other online exam-monitoring services created discriminatory and stressful check-in experiences for BIPOC students during remote exams. One U of T student said ProctorU's identity-verification process often failed to recognize her passport, forcing manual checks and consuming exam check-in time. ProctorU said human proctors made final identity and integrity decisions.
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University of Illinois' Proctorio Remote-Proctoring Deployment Reportedly Raised Student Rights Concerns AIID ↗
Beginning in March 2020, the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign deployed Proctorio for remote exam proctoring after the COVID-19 shift to online instruction. Students and faculty raised concerns that the software surveilled students' homes and devices, created accessibility barriers, increased testing anxiety, and could flag students when facial-detection tools failed to detect their faces, with particular concern for students of color. UIUC later declined to renew its emergency contract.
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Personal voice assistants struggle with black voices, new study shows AIID ↗
A study found that voice recognition tools from Apple, Amazon, Google, IBM, and Microsoft disproportionately made errors when transcribing black speakers.
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Detroit Police Allegedly Wrongfully Arrested Black Man Due to Purportedly Faulty Facial Recognition Technology AIID ↗
A Black man was allegedly wrongfully detained by the Detroit Police Department as a result of a purportedly false facial recognition technology (FRT) result.
Disclaimer: informational only, not legal advice. Verify every claim against the linked official sources and consult a qualified lawyer before acting.
Frequently asked questions
What is recorded in each incident?
What happened, when, who was involved as developer or deployer, who was harmed, the sectors and countries affected, and the domain and subdomain the harm falls under. Incidents are mirrored from the AI Incident Database and each links back to its source record.
Does an incident mean wrongdoing was proven?
No. These are reported incidents, not findings of liability. Entities named in a report are named as reported, allegations are marked as alleged, and nothing here is a legal determination.
How current is the incident data?
It syncs directly from the AI Incident Database several times a day, so a new incident usually appears within hours. Each record carries the date it was last synced, and the snapshot date is shown on the page.
Does this page include the full incident reports?
No. The report texts are outside the licence this data is shared under, so only the metadata and the classifications appear here. Every row links to the original incident record, which carries the reports themselves.