AI incident ·
City of Spokane Reportedly Distributed Purported AI-Generated Clocktower Flyer Resembling Graphic Designer Matthew Clinard's Artwork
In brief
An AI system built by Synthetic Media Generation Technology Developers and Synthetic Image Generation Technology Developers and deployed by Unnamed Employee Of Spokane Parks And Recreation Department, Synthetic Media Creators and 3 others allegedly harmed Matthew Clinard, Epistemic Integrity and 4 others.
- Risk domain
- Not classified
- Occurred
- Coverage
- 1 report
What happened
A Spokane Parks and Recreation employee reportedly used a purported generative AI image tool to create a flyer promoting the restored Great Northern Clocktower chimes. The flyer reportedly reproduced elements of artist Matthew Clinard's commercially sold Clocktower sticker and was distributed by the mayor's office without the city-required AI disclosure. After Clinard complained publicly, the city removed the image and apologized, then began considering AI-policy and employee-training reforms.
Laws that address this harm
No recorded instrument yet addresses this use case where it happened. See the open queue.
Matched from the record's risk domain and country to the instruments recorded here. A reviewer can correct the match in the repository (data/external/incident_overrides.yaml).
News reports (1)
Titles link to the original publisher; report text is not reproduced here.
Who was involved
- Alleged developer
- Synthetic Media Generation Technology Developers, Synthetic Image Generation Technology Developers
- Alleged harmed party
- Matthew Clinard, Epistemic Integrity, Artists, Copyright Holders, General Public, General Public Of Spokane
Classification (MIT AI Risk Repository taxonomy)
- Risk domain
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- Risk subdomain
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- Causal entity
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- Intent
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- Timing
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Source record: incident #1598 on the AI Incident Database · all 1 report