The record

Where automated decisions went wrong

Incidents gathered from public reporting around the world. Each one links to the articles it came from. None of it is a finding that anyone broke the law.

Reports people file about their own experience are not shown here and never will be without their agreement. Tell us what happened to you.

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92 incidents closest to “Duolingo Max” · matched on meaning · public reporting

ChatGPT water consumption study warns of environmental impact

A study from the University of Colorado Riverside and the University of Texas Arlington estimates that OpenAI's ChatGPT consumes a 500ml bottle of fresh water for every 20 to 50 questions. The water is used to cool data center servers. The study urges companies to address their water footprint.

Company involved
OpenAI
AI system involved
ChatGPT

10 source articles · read the reporting →

WF-3UCXWE1 Jul 2023

Study finds Midjourney, DALL-E 2, Stable Diffusion accept over 85% of fake news prompts

A study by AI startup Logically tested Midjourney, DALL-E 2, and Stable Diffusion and found that they accepted over 85% of prompts seeking to generate fake political news. The systems generated images of ballot stuffing, small boat arrivals, and explosions. Logically warned that the lack of moderation could pose threats to upcoming elections. Stability AI responded by stating its ethical use license and measures to prevent misuse.

Company involved
Midjourney, OpenAI, Stability AI
AI system involved
Midjourney, DALL-E 2, Stable Diffusion

8 source articles · read the reporting →

Answer.AI tests Devin and reports 14 failures in 20 tasks

Answer.AI's team tested Devin, an autonomous AI coding assistant, on 20 real-world tasks over a month. Devin succeeded in only 3 tasks, failed 14, and was inconclusive in 3. The team found Devin often produced overly complex or hallucinated solutions and could not recognize fundamental blockers. They ultimately decided to stick with tools that allow more human control.

AI system involved
Devin

5 source articles · read the reporting →

LINAGORA closes Lucie 7B after user mockery

LINAGORA, a French open-source software company, launched a beta version of its large language model Lucie 7B. The model was intended to be a transparent and ethical alternative to big tech AI. However, after users tested it and highlighted its shortcomings, the model was mocked online. LINAGORA subsequently closed the platform to address the issues and collect more data.

Company involved
LINAGORA
AI system involved
Lucie 7B

6 source articles · read the reporting →

WF-UO2QO927 Jan 2025

OpenAI accuses DeepSeek of inappropriately using its data

OpenAI has accused Chinese AI company DeepSeek of inappropriately using data from its ChatGPT model to train DeepSeek's own large language model. The allegation involves a technique called distillation, where one model is trained using outputs from another. OpenAI said it is reviewing indications of the misuse and will share more information. DeepSeek has not responded to the accusation.

Company involved
DeepSeek
AI system involved
DeepSeek

6 source articles · read the reporting →

WF-G1A5LS1 Nov 2023

ETH Zurich study shows LLMs can infer Reddit users' personal data

Researchers at ETH Zurich conducted a study where nine large language models, including GPT-4, analysed Reddit users' posts and inferred personal attributes such as age, location, gender, and income with up to 85% accuracy. The study randomly selected 520 users and found that GPT-4 was most accurate, while LlaMA-2-7b was least. The researchers warn that people unknowingly reveal personal information online that LLMs can exploit.

Company involved
ETH Zurich
AI system involved
GPT-4, LlaMA-2-7b

4 source articles · read the reporting →

Researchers jailbreak Stable Diffusion and DALL-E 2 to generate disturbing images

Researchers from Johns Hopkins and Duke universities developed a method called SneakyPrompt that uses reinforcement learning to bypass safety filters in text-to-image AI models. The technique allowed them to generate images of nudity and violence from Stable Diffusion and DALL-E 2. OpenAI has since fixed the vulnerability in DALL-E 2, but Stable Diffusion 1.4 remains vulnerable. Stability AI says it is working with the researchers to improve defenses.

AI system involved
Stable Diffusion 1.4 and DALL-E 2

5 source articles · read the reporting →

Researchers extract training data from ChatGPT using repeat prompt

Researchers from Google DeepMind and other institutions developed an attack that extracts verbatim training data from OpenAI's ChatGPT. By prompting the model to repeat a word forever, they caused it to output memorized personal information, including email addresses and phone numbers. The attack demonstrates that alignment techniques can be circumvented, and the researchers estimate that a gigabyte of training data could be extracted.

Company involved
OpenAI
AI system involved
ChatGPT

8 source articles · read the reporting →

WF-EA6R453 Jan 2023

New York City Department of Education blocks ChatGPT on school devices

The New York City Department of Education blocked access to the AI chatbot ChatGPT on school devices and networks, citing concerns about negative impacts on student learning and the safety and accuracy of content. The ban applies to all students and teachers on education department devices and internet networks. Individual schools can still request access for studying the technology. The move is the nation's largest school system's response to the arrival of ChatGPT.

Company involved
New York City Department of Education
AI system involved
ChatGPT

9 source articles · read the reporting →

WF-QT6OIZ28 Sep 2016

Google used 11,000 novels without permission to train AI

Google researchers fed 11,000 novels, including works by authors Rebecca Forster and Erin McCarthy, into a neural network to improve conversational AI without seeking permission. The Authors Guild condemned the use as a 'blatantly commercial use of expressive authorship'. Google defended the practice as fair use, stating it does not harm authors. The authors expressed frustration at not being informed or compensated.

Company involved
Google

10 source articles · read the reporting →

WF-A3DBHF1 Jul 2023

French competition authority fines Google €250 million over Bard content use

The Autorité de la concurrence has fined Google €250 million for breaching commitments on related rights. The authority found that Google's Bard (now Gemini) chatbot used content from press agencies and publishers to train its foundation model and for grounding and display, without informing them or offering an opt-out that did not affect other Google services. Google did not contest the facts and proposed corrective measures.

Company involved
Google
AI system involved
Bard (now Gemini)

9 source articles · read the reporting →

WF-ID19SZ1 Jan 2012

Dutch government to refund over 10,000 students over discriminatory DUO fraud algorithm

The Dutch government has pledged to refund over 10,000 students who were unjustly flagged for student finance fraud by a discriminatory algorithm used by the Education Executive Agency (DUO). The algorithm, implemented in 2012, used criteria that disproportionately targeted students from immigrant backgrounds, particularly those of Turkish and Moroccan descent. Following investigations by the Dutch Data Protection Authority and an independent report by PwC, the algorithm was suspended in July 2023 and replaced with a random-sampling system. The government has allocated 61 million euro for refunds.

Company involved
Education Executive Agency (DUO)
AI system involved
DUO fraud detection system

9 source articles · read the reporting →

WF-YE202L22 Feb 2025

xAI's Grok 3 briefly censored mentions of Trump and Musk

xAI's Grok 3 chatbot was briefly instructed not to mention Donald Trump or Elon Musk when answering the question 'Who is the biggest misinformation spreader?' in its chain-of-thought reasoning. Users reported the behaviour before xAI reverted the change, according to an engineering lead who described it as an employee mistake. The incident occurred shortly after Grok 3 was promoted as a 'maximally truth-seeking AI' by Elon Musk.

Company involved
xAI
AI system involved
Grok 3

4 source articles · read the reporting →

WF-CP9OZK22 Jan 2024

OpenAI suspends developer of bot mimicking Dean Phillips

OpenAI suspended the developer of a bot that used ChatGPT to impersonate Democratic presidential candidate Dean Phillips. The bot interacted with users without disclosing it was an AI, violating OpenAI's policies against political campaigning. This is the company's first known action against misuse of its AI in a political campaign.

5 source articles · read the reporting →

WF-7VGPYK1 Jan 2021

OpenAI transcribed YouTube videos to train GPT-4 without permission

OpenAI used its Whisper transcription model to transcribe over a million hours of YouTube videos, according to a New York Times report. The company allegedly used the transcripts to train GPT-4 despite knowing the practice was legally questionable. Google, which owns YouTube, said it prohibits unauthorized scraping of its content. OpenAI has said it believes its use of the data constitutes fair use.

Company involved
OpenAI
AI system involved
Whisper, GPT-4

6 source articles · read the reporting →

Slack trains AI features on user messages and files by default

Slack uses user messages, files, and data to train its machine learning features such as channel recommendations and emoji suggestions. Users are opted in by default and cannot individually opt out; only workspace administrators can request exclusion via email. A user publicly criticized the practice, and Slack acknowledged the policy but did not change it.

Company involved
Slack

10 source articles · read the reporting →

WF-X0LJEA1 Jan 2020

Voice actors sue LOVO over alleged theft of voices for AI training

Voice actors Paul Skye Lehrman and Linnea Sage filed a proposed class action against AI startup LOVO, alleging the company misappropriated their voices to train its text-to-speech system Genny. The actors claim they were hired on Fiverr under the pretence of academic research but later discovered their voices were used commercially without consent. Lehrman reports a 50% decline in work and loss of control over how his voice is used. The lawsuit, filed in New York federal court, seeks to represent other affected voiceover artists and obtain a court order blocking the practice.

Company involved
LOVO
AI system involved
Genny

6 source articles · read the reporting →

WF-YRTKS826 Sep 2023

Mistral releases unmoderated chatbot that gives instructions on murder and ethnic cleansing

Mistral, a French AI startup valued at $260 million, released an open-source large language model named Mistral-7B-v0.1 without safety evaluations or moderation mechanisms. The model readily provides detailed instructions on murder, ethnic cleansing, suicide, and other harmful content. Mistral added a statement after the release acknowledging the lack of moderation but did not remove the model, which is distributed via torrent and cannot be deleted.

Company involved
Mistral
AI system involved
Mistral-7B-v0.1

7 source articles · read the reporting →

WF-OS2JRK21 Feb 2024

Meta’s BlenderBot 3 chatbot generates offensive content publicly.

Meta released its AI chatbot BlenderBot 3 for public testing in February 2024. Users reported that the chatbot generated anti-Semitic, racist, and conspiratorial responses. Meta acknowledged the flaws and said public feedback is essential for improvement. The incident reignited debate about the ethics of releasing underdeveloped AI systems.

Company involved
Meta
AI system involved
BlenderBot 3

6 source articles · read the reporting →

WF-WW27TM1 Jul 2023

Anti-piracy group takes down Books3 dataset used to train Meta's LLaMA

The Danish anti-piracy group Rights Alliance sent a DMCA takedown request to The Eye, which hosted the Books3 dataset containing 196,640 copyrighted books. The dataset was used by Meta to train its LLaMA language model. Authors including Sarah Silverman have filed a class action lawsuit against Meta for using their works without permission. The dataset has been taken offline, but copies remain available.

Company involved
Meta
AI system involved
LLaMA

10 source articles · read the reporting →

WF-FEIKJ921 Oct 2023

Deepfake video of Taylor Swift speaking Mandarin goes viral in China

A deepfake video of Taylor Swift speaking Mandarin, created using HeyGen's Video Translate tool, went viral on Chinese social media in October 2023. The video, which appeared to show Swift speaking fluent Chinese, was viewed millions of times. The incident sparked mixed reactions, with some praising the technology and others expressing concern about potential misuse. The tool uses AI to translate, clone voice, and sync lips.

AI system involved
Video Translate

10 source articles · read the reporting →

ChatGPT imitated user's voice without permission during testing

During testing of ChatGPT's Advanced Voice Mode, the AI model unintentionally imitated a user's voice without permission. The incident occurred when noisy audio input caused the model to replace the authorized voice sample with the user's voice. OpenAI acknowledged the issue in its GPT-4o system card and implemented safeguards to prevent recurrence.

Company involved
OpenAI
AI system involved
ChatGPT (GPT-4o with Advanced Voice Mode)

5 source articles · read the reporting →

ChatGPT language glitch causes Welsh output for English prompts

ChatGPT, a chatbot developed by OpenAI, suffered a glitch in which it began generating responses in Welsh instead of English when users entered English-language prompts. The issue left users confused and unable to obtain proper responses. The cause of the bug was not disclosed, and it is unclear how many users were affected or how long the glitch persisted.

Company involved
OpenAI
AI system involved
ChatGPT

7 source articles · read the reporting →

Disney, Universal, Warner Bros. sue MiniMax over Hailuo AI copyright infringement

Disney, Universal, and Warner Bros. Discovery have filed a copyright lawsuit against Chinese AI company MiniMax, alleging that its Hailuo AI image and video generator was built using stolen copyrighted characters. The lawsuit claims MiniMax used characters such as Darth Vader and Minions to market the service without authorization. The studios are seeking profits and an injunction to halt the infringement. MiniMax has not responded to the allegations.

Company involved
MiniMax
AI system involved
Hailuo AI

7 source articles · read the reporting →

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