Glasgow AI mural design sparks criticism from local artists
Balmoral Estates used AI to generate a design mock-up for a planned mural on Elmbank Street in Glasgow. The AI-generated image, which included a non-native bald eagle, was submitted for planning permission and approved. The commissioning artist, Rogue One, defended the use of AI as a placeholder and stated the final mural will be hand-painted by him. Critics argue human artists should have been involved from the start.
- Company involved
- Balmoral Estates
4 source articles · read the reporting →
Microsoft funded Israeli facial recognition firm surveilling West Bank Palestinians
Microsoft invested in AnyVision, an Israeli facial recognition company whose technology powers a secret military surveillance project in the West Bank. The system, called Better Tomorrow, identifies and tracks Palestinians in live camera feeds. Microsoft said it would audit AnyVision for compliance with its ethical principles.
- Company involved
- Israeli Defense Forces
- AI system involved
- Better Tomorrow
10 source articles · read the reporting →
Walgreens deploys digital cooler doors with ads from Cooler Screens
Walgreens is rolling out digital cooler doors from Cooler Screens that display ads before showing the cooler contents. The system tracks when customers stop in front of the doors but claims to be identity-blind. Customers have expressed confusion and annoyance on social media. Walgreens says the screens provide relevant product information.
- Company involved
- Walgreens
- AI system involved
- Cooler Screens
10 source articles · read the reporting →
MIT-IBM Watson AI Lab's AI Portrait Ars produces whitewashed portraits of people of colour
AI Portrait Ars, developed by researchers at the MIT-IBM Watson AI Lab, is reported to have generated Renaissance-style portraits that lightened the skin and altered the facial features of people of colour. The tool, trained on tens of thousands of paintings from the Western artistic tradition, was criticised for reproducing that bias in its data set. The creators acknowledged the bias but did not respond to a request for comment.
- Company involved
- MIT-IBM Watson AI Lab
- AI system involved
- AI Portrait Ars
10 source articles · read the reporting →
Meta sues Voyager Labs for scraping Facebook and Instagram user data
Meta filed a legal action against Voyager Labs, alleging that the company used fake accounts and proprietary software to scrape user data from Facebook and Instagram. The scraping collected profile information, posts, friends lists, photos and comments. Meta disabled Voyager's accounts and sought a permanent injunction. The case was settled in December 2024, with Voyager agreeing to a permanent injunction and monetary payment.
- Company involved
- Voyager Labs
10 source articles · read the reporting →
Verkada security breach exposes customer video and data
In March 2021, attackers compromised Verkada's platform and accessed video and image data from 97 customer organisations. The attackers used a misconfigured customer support server to gain access and viewed live video, accessed badge credentials for eight customers, and downloaded user lists. Verkada cut off access within hours and notified affected customers. The attacker, Tillie Kottmann, was later indicted by the U.S. Department of Justice.
- Company involved
- Verkada
- AI system involved
- Verkada Command platform with People Analytics
10 source articles · read the reporting →
Israeli military uses Smash Hopper turret against Palestinian protesters
The Israeli military deployed Smash Hopper remote-controlled gun turrets in the West Bank. The turrets fire stun grenades, less-than-lethal bullets, and tear gas at Palestinian protesters without warning. The systems were observed at Al-Aroub refugee camp and Hebron in October 2022. The Smash Hopper is produced by Smart Shooter.
- Company involved
- Israeli military
- AI system involved
- Smash Hopper
10 source articles · read the reporting →
Portland Metro ends Replica partnership over data privacy concerns
Portland Metro, an elected regional government in Oregon, ended its pilot project with movement data company Replica after a disagreement about data sharing. Portland Metro requested raw, disaggregated data, which Replica refused to provide, citing user privacy concerns. The partnership was terminated without payment.
- Company involved
- Portland Metro
- AI system involved
- Replica
10 source articles · read the reporting →
Kohler, BMW, MaxMara secretly collected customers' facial recognition data
During the 2021 CCTV 3·15 Gala, it was revealed that Kohler, BMW, and MaxMara stores had installed facial recognition cameras from vendors such as Wandianzhang and Youluoke. These cameras captured customers' facial data without their knowledge or consent, and the data was used to track customer visits and inform sales strategies. The systems were deployed in thousands of stores across China, collecting over 100 million facial records. The companies did not inform customers or obtain consent, violating Chinese privacy laws.
- Company involved
- Kohler (China) Investment Co., Ltd., ZhengTong Auto (BMW dealerships), MaxMara
- AI system involved
- Facial recognition cameras from Wandianzhang, Youluoke, Yaliang, Ruiwei
10 source articles · read the reporting →
ViaQuatro's facial recognition system in São Paulo metro challenged in court
In April 2018, ViaQuatro installed the Digital Interactive Doors System, developed by AdMobilize, on the São Paulo metro's yellow line. The system used cameras to detect passengers' faces and claimed to infer their emotion, age, and gender in order to target advertisements. The Brazilian Institute of Consumer Protection (IDEC) filed a public civil action alleging that the system violated consumer and data protection laws by processing biometric data without consent and making pseudoscientific and discriminatory inferences. A judge ordered the cameras removed in August 2018, and the case is pending a final ruling.
- Company involved
- ViaQuatro
- AI system involved
- Digital Interactive Doors System (DID system)
10 source articles · read the reporting →
Serbia's Ministry of Interior deploys thousands of Huawei facial recognition cameras in Belgrade
In early 2019, Serbia's Ministry of Interior announced the deployment of a thousand smart surveillance cameras with facial and license plate recognition capabilities, supplied by Huawei, across Belgrade. The Ministry refused to release information about the project, citing confidentiality, and failed to conduct a legally required Data Protection Impact Assessment. Citizens responded by crowdsourcing camera locations via the hashtag #hiljadekamera and a website. The system remains in operation with no public debate or transparency.
- Company involved
- Ministry of Interior
- AI system involved
- Huawei smart surveillance cameras
10 source articles · read the reporting →
Magnum photographer Carl De Keyzer uses AI to create controversial photo series
Magnum photographer Carl De Keyzer used AI to create a photo series titled 'Putin's Dream' after a planned road trip to Russia was cancelled due to the war. He trained the AI with his own photographs to maintain his style. The images were posted online to promote the book, leading to outcry on social media and accusations of contributing to disinformation. De Keyzer deleted the images and had a conversation with Magnum about the project.
- Company involved
- Carl De Keyzer
4 source articles · read the reporting →
DeepSeek exposed user data via open ClickHouse database
Cloud security firm Wiz discovered a ClickHouse database belonging to DeepSeek that was open to the internet without authentication, containing over a million lines of logs with chat histories, secret keys and backend details. Wiz disclosed the breach to DeepSeek, which promptly locked down the database. The incident highlights security risks in rapidly deploying AI services.
- Company involved
- DeepSeek
- AI system involved
- DeepSeek-R1
5 source articles · read the reporting →
Bavarian police test Palantir data mining with real personal data
The Bavarian State Criminal Police Office (LKA) has been testing Palantir's data mining software, called VeRa, with real personal data for months. The Bavarian data protection commissioner only learned of the test through a media inquiry and has announced a review. The Interior Ministry claims the test is lawful under current law, but critics argue a legal basis is missing.
- Company involved
- Bayerisches Landeskriminalamt
- AI system involved
- VeRa
7 source articles · read the reporting →
N-Tech.lab's FindFace used to identify St Petersburg metro passengers without consent
Egor Tsvetkov photographed passengers on the St Petersburg metro without their permission and used N-Tech.lab's facial recognition service FindFace to match their faces to public Vkontakte profiles. He published the results in an art project called 'Your Face is Big Data', saying he wanted to show how 'digital narcissism' can lead to stalking. Privacy advocates said the project was ethically problematic because the subjects had not consented and their identities were exposed. FindFace had been launched by N-Tech.lab in February 2016.
- Company involved
- N-Tech.lab
- AI system involved
- FindFace
8 source articles · read the reporting →
Adobe Firefly generates historically inaccurate images of black Nazis and Vikings
Adobe's AI image generator Firefly produced historically inaccurate images, including black Nazis, black Vikings, and black Founding Fathers, when given basic prompts. The images, generated by DailyMail.com and Semafor, are similar to those that caused controversy for Google's Gemini. Adobe acknowledged the images were "inadvertently off base" and stated they are working to improve the model.
- Company involved
- Adobe
- AI system involved
- Adobe Firefly
3 source articles · read the reporting →
Manchester Arena's Evolv weapon scanners fail to detect some knives, report finds
ASM Global's use of Evolv Express AI weapon scanners at Manchester Arena has been questioned after a private report found the system failed to detect large knives in 42% of walkthroughs. The report, produced by NCS4 and obtained by IPVM, also suggested the scanners may miss some bombs and components. Evolv did not dispute the findings but said it communicates capabilities and limitations to customers. ASM Global declined to comment on security matters.
- Company involved
- ASM Global
- AI system involved
- Evolv Express
5 source articles · read the reporting →
Israeli settler group posts AI video of Al-Aqsa burning
An Israeli settler group called Temple Mount Activists released an AI-generated video showing Al-Aqsa Mosque in occupied East Jerusalem burning to the ground. A caption read 'Coming soon in these days'. Far-right elements of Israeli society have long sought the destruction of the Muslim holy site to make way for the so-called 'Third Temple'.
- Company involved
- Temple Mount Activists
4 source articles · read the reporting →
Bahia Facial Recognition System Misidentifies Black Man as Wanted Criminal
Davi, a black administrative assistant, was tracked across 15 metro stations and approached by police after Bahia's facial recognition system falsely matched him to a wanted person. He was released after officers verified his identity. The system, supplied by Iecisa and Huawei, has a low accuracy rate and disproportionately affects black people. The government plans to expand it despite concerns over racial bias and errors.
- Company involved
- Secretaria de Segurança Pública da Bahia
2 source articles · read the reporting →
Adobe Firefly trained on thousands of Midjourney images, Bloomberg reports
Bloomberg has reported that Adobe's Firefly image generator was trained using thousands of images from competitor Midjourney. Adobe says these made up about 5% of the training data and were part of the Adobe Stock library. The company has marketed Firefly as ethically trained and offered enterprise customers indemnity against copyright claims. Adobe responded that all Adobe Stock images undergo moderation, but the report has raised questions about Firefly's copyright safety.
- Company involved
- Adobe
- AI system involved
- Firefly
7 source articles · read the reporting →
Adidas UK's automated Arsenal shirt campaign hijacked with racist tweets
Adidas UK launched a Twitter campaign allowing users to have their handles printed on virtual Arsenal shirts, which were then automatically tweeted by the @AdidasUK account. The campaign was hijacked by users with offensive handles, resulting in the company posting racist and antisemitic slogans. Adidas disabled the feature and apologised, while Arsenal condemned the language. The tweets were widely shared before being removed.
- Company involved
- Adidas UK
1 source article · read the reporting →
Pentagon Used Anthropic's Claude in Maduro Venezuela Raid
The Wall Street Journal reported allegations that Anthropic's Claude AI model was used by JSOC in an operation to capture former Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro. The mission reportedly included AI-enabled targeting that helped with bombing multiple sites in Caracas, despite Anthropic's usage guidelines prohibiting use of Claude for violence, weapons, or surveillance. Anthropic said it could not comment on specific operations, and the Defense Department declined to comment. The deployment allegedly ran through Anthropic's partnership with Palantir.
- Company involved
- Pentagon
- AI system involved
- Claude
4 source articles · read the reporting →
Meta’s Ray-Ban Glasses used to film massage parlor workers without consent
Men wearing Meta’s Ray-Ban glasses filmed women working at massage parlors across the United States without their knowledge and uploaded the videos to Instagram, where they garnered millions of views. The videos allegedly show men soliciting sex work, and in some cases the exact location of the parlors is visible, potentially exposing the workers to harassment and violence. The article reports that the women’s consent was not obtained and that the recordings are being shared online for attention and likes.
- Company involved
- Meta
- AI system involved
- Ray-Ban Glasses
4 source articles · read the reporting →
Macy's and Sunglass Hut facial recognition misidentifies man, leading to wrongful jailing
Harvey Eugene Murphy Jr was misidentified by facial recognition software used by Sunglass Hut and Macy's as the perpetrator of an armed robbery. He was arrested and jailed, where he alleges he was beaten and raped. His alibi was later confirmed and charges were dropped. He is suing the companies for $10 million in damages.
- Company involved
- Macy's and EssilorLuxottica
3 source articles · read the reporting →
