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.

Clear

116 incidents closest to “Blackboard Ally” · matched on meaning · public reporting

WF-S574X31 Jan 2019

Spanish Supreme Court orders release of BOSCO algorithm code for social electricity bonus

The Spanish NGO Civio won a Supreme Court case forcing the government to release the source code of BOSCO, the algorithm that decides eligibility for the social electricity bonus (bono social eléctrico). Civio had demonstrated in 2019 that BOSCO contained serious errors that denied the benefit to vulnerable people who met the requirements. The government had refused to disclose the code, citing intellectual property. The Supreme Court ruled that transparency must prevail, setting a precedent for public access to automated decision-making systems.

Company involved
Ministerio para la Transición Ecológica (Gobierno de España)
AI system involved
BOSCO

10 source articles · read the reporting →

WF-JAFZJY1 Mar 2025

South Korea's AI textbook program rolled back after complaints

South Korea's Ministry of Education launched AI-powered digital textbooks in March 2025 for math, English, and computer science. Students, teachers, and parents complained about technical problems, inaccuracies, and data privacy risks. After four months, the textbooks were stripped of official status and made optional. The program was criticized for being rushed and insufficiently tested.

Company involved
South Korean Ministry of Education
AI system involved
AI-powered textbooks

7 source articles · read the reporting →

WF-QLNRBN31 Jan 2023

ElevenLabs voice cloning tool used to create deepfake celebrity audio clips

Speech AI startup ElevenLabs launched a beta voice cloning tool. Within days, users on 4chan posted deepfake audio clips featuring voices resembling celebrities like Emma Watson reading offensive material. ElevenLabs acknowledged the misuse and said it is considering additional safeguards.

Company involved
ElevenLabs
AI system involved
ElevenLabs platform

10 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-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-TT1WEC30 Sep 2020

UIUC students petition to stop Proctorio exam proctoring over privacy concerns

A petition at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) alleges that Proctorio, an online exam proctoring system, violates student privacy by accessing websites, downloads, screen content, and app settings. The petition claims the terms of service allow monitoring by 'any other means necessary', which students find unsettling. The petition, created on September 30, 2020, gathered 1,087 supporters but does not report any specific incident of harm. It calls on UIUC to discontinue use of Proctorio in favour of alternatives.

Company involved
UIUC
AI system involved
Proctorio

9 source articles · read the reporting →

WF-BRFSWB1 Feb 2023

Audiobook narrators fear Apple used their voices to train AI without consent

Audiobook narrators and authors were outraged after discovering that a clause in contracts with distributor Findaway Voices gave Apple the right to use audiobook files for machine learning training. Many narrators were not clearly informed of the clause and feared their voices were used to develop Apple's synthetic voice technology for audiobooks. After the labor union SAG-AFTRA intervened, Apple and Findaway agreed to halt the practice for union members, but the issue remains unresolved for others.

Company involved
Apple

5 source articles · read the reporting →

BPI threatens legal action against AI voice platform Jammable over deepfake songs

The British Phonographic Industry has threatened legal proceedings against Jammable, an AI voice platform formerly known as Voicify, over its collection of deepfake songs. The trade association alleges that the platform's use of AI-generated voices imitating musicians such as Taylor Swift and Billie Eilish, and public figures such as Donald Trump and Narendra Modi, infringes artists' rights under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. Jammable has rebranded and removed guides on making deepfakes following the letter before action, but no formal claim has yet been filed.

Company involved
Jammable
AI system involved
Voicify (now Jammable)

10 source articles · read the reporting →

WF-IG5R9T9 Apr 2024

Texas uses AI to grade student STAAR test answers

The Texas Education Agency will use an automated scoring engine to grade written answers on the 2023 STAAR tests, replacing thousands of human graders. The system uses natural language processing and will initially score all responses, with a quarter rescored by humans. Educators have expressed concerns about the system's fairness and the potential for errors, especially for creative or non-standard answers.

Company involved
Texas Education Agency
AI system involved
automated scoring engine

10 source articles · read the reporting →

Evolv weapon detection system falsely flags Chromebooks as weapons

Evolv's AI-based weapon detection system has been reported to falsely identify certain Chromebook laptops as weapons, causing false alarms at security checkpoints. The system is used in venues such as schools. The article discusses the flaw and user experiences. No official response from Evolv has been mentioned.

Company involved
Evolv
AI system involved
Evolv

5 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-4N6UFD1 Mar 2021

Baltimore schools monitor student laptops for suicide signs using GoGuardian Beacon

Baltimore City Public Schools uses GoGuardian Beacon software to monitor student laptops for signs of suicide. Since March 2021, the system has flagged 786 alerts, with nine students taken to emergency rooms. Privacy advocates warn the monitoring could lead to disciplinary actions, outing of LGBTQ students, and disproportionately affect disadvantaged students. School officials defend the practice as a safeguard.

Company involved
Baltimore City Public Schools
AI system involved
GoGuardian Beacon

10 source articles · read the reporting →

Meta's AI model is being used to create sexual chatbots

Meta released an AI model that allows people to make their own chatbots. Some users are employing it to create sexual chatbots, including one named Allie, an 18-year-old character who engages in graphic rape and abuse fantasies. The article presents this as a potential danger of open-source AI to society.

Company involved
Meta

9 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 →

UN warns AI technology used to distort Holocaust history

The UN's education body Unesco warned that AI tools such as ChatGPT, Gemini and Bard are being used to generate false narratives about the Holocaust, including invented events and fabricated witnesses. The report highlights instances where hackers rigged chatbots to spread Nazi ideology and AI models created deepfakes of historical figures. Unesco called for ethical safeguards and education to counter the spread of anti-Semitism.

9 source articles · read the reporting →

LinkedIn removes AI 'co-worker' accounts that were seeking jobs

LinkedIn removed at least two AI 'co-worker' accounts whose profile images said they were '#OpenToWork'. One account named Ella claimed it would outperform any social media team and needed no coffee breaks. The article does not specify further consequences.

Company involved
LinkedIn
AI system involved
AI 'co-worker' account 'Ella'

4 source articles · read the reporting →

ADL reports Suno AI tool was used to generate hateful songs

An ADL report says extremists have used Suno, a generative AI music-creation tool, to produce songs containing antisemitic, racist, xenophobic and violent content. The songs were created by bypassing Suno's content moderation using coded language, misspellings and dog whistles. ADL contacted Suno and Microsoft but received no response.

Company involved
Suno AI
AI system involved
Suno

6 source articles · read the reporting →

WF-GV5HWV21 Oct 2019

Starship delivery robots blocked wheelchair users at University of Pittsburgh

In October 2019, Starship Technologies' autonomous delivery robots blocked wheelchair users on the University of Pittsburgh campus. Doctoral student Emily Ackerman reported that a robot blocked the only accessible sidewalk entrance, trapping her near traffic. Another wheelchair user, Alisa Grishman, had a similar incident earlier that month. The university and Starship paused the robot program for review.

Company involved
Starship Technologies
AI system involved
Starship delivery robot

4 source articles · read the reporting →

Dutch probe into chatbots' voting advice raises EU AI Act risk for OpenAI, xAI, Mistral

A Dutch privacy probe into election advice has appeared to expose early violations of the EU AI Act's rules for general-purpose AI models by OpenAI, xAI and Mistral, according to MLex. The companies' chatbots provided distorted voting advice to users. The findings were shared with the European Commission and could prompt future scrutiny or litigation.

Company involved
OpenAI, xAI and Mistral

6 source articles · read the reporting →

News/Media Alliance study finds unauthorised use of publisher content to train AI

The News/Media Alliance alleges that generative AI developers have copied and used publishers' content without authorisation to train large language models. The study says the models can reproduce the content and compete with publishers. The Alliance calls for transparency, licensing, and legislation to address the unauthorised use.

10 source articles · read the reporting →

Meta's cross-check program delays removal of violating content for privileged users

The Oversight Board's policy advisory opinion on Meta's cross-check program found that the system grants certain users, such as business partners and celebrities, additional human review before removing violating content, while ordinary users face immediate removal. This unequal treatment allows potentially harmful content to remain on the platform for days, and Meta has failed to track whether the program improves accuracy. The Board made 32 recommendations to address these flaws.

Company involved
Meta
AI system involved
cross-check program

10 source articles · read the reporting →

School AI surveillance like Gaggle can lead to false alarms, arrests

AI surveillance tools used in schools, such as Gaggle, GoGuardian and Bark, are reported to generate false alarms that have led to student arrests. The article examines cases where automated monitoring flagged innocent behaviour as threats, causing harm to students and families.

2 source articles · read the reporting →

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