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.
Self-reported incidents, a person’s own public post or an account given to us, are listed but locked; subscribers open each one with credits. Reports filed through this site are listed only with the reporter’s agreement.
Press reportingSelf-reported: a person’s own public post · 10 creditsSelf-reported: told to us directly · 25 credits
Huawei's Pura 70 series includes an AI retouching feature that can inadvertently remove clothing from images. Users on Weibo posted videos demonstrating this, raising privacy concerns. Huawei customer service acknowledged the issue, attributing it to algorithm loopholes, and promised a fix in upcoming system updates.
Walmart has been accused of selling AI-generated artwork in its stores. A painting of a fake Chanel perfume bottle with the misspelled word 'CHANE' was spotted on a shelf. The artwork, originally priced at $26.54 and marked down to $22.15, was supplied by Design Art. The incident raises concerns about the use of AI in retail products without disclosure.
On March 3, 2024, a Ford Mustang Mach-E operating in hands-free partial automation mode (BlueCruise) collided with stationary vehicles in a work zone on I-95 in Philadelphia. The system recorded a speed of 72.4 mph with no braking or steering before impact. The drivers of the two stationary vehicles died, and the Ford driver was injured. The NTSB determined the probable cause to be driver impairment and distraction due to overreliance on automation, as well as Ford's inadequate integration of speed management with the automation system.
DC Comics is facing accusations that artists used AI to generate artwork for recent Batman issues and covers. Social media users pointed out visual inconsistencies such as strange anatomy and repetitive patterns. Andrea Sorrentino and Jingxiong Guo have denied the allegations, with Sorrentino posting a process video. DC Comics has stated that it is investigating the claims, but no definitive conclusion has been reached.
The Netflix documentary What Jennifer Did used clearly AI-generated images of Jennifer Pan during a sequence in which a friend describes her as a happy, confident teenager. The images were presented to viewers as genuine photographs, with no disclosure that they were AI-generated, according to a report by Futurism. The Archival Producers Alliance had just published draft ethical guidelines warning against exactly this practice. No correction or public response from Netflix has been reported.
A Tesla driver using autopilot mode was charged with vehicular homicide after his vehicle struck and killed a motorcyclist in Washington. The driver told police the car lurched forward and accelerated into the motorcycle. The motorcyclist, 28-year-old Jeff Nissen, died at the scene. The driver was using his phone at the time and was charged with vehicular homicide.
UK drivers are unhappy with new AI speed cameras that detect mobile phone use and seatbelt violations. The cameras, being piloted by National Highways and police forces, send images to police for action. Many drivers see them as an invasion of privacy, although some acknowledge safety benefits.
Film studio A24 used AI-generated images to promote its dystopian film 'Civil War' on Instagram, without disclosing that the images were AI-generated. The images depicted iconic American locations in ruins, but contained inaccuracies typical of AI models. The public reacted with outrage, accusing A24 of devaluing artistry and failing to label AI content.
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.
Michel Janse posted a video stating that AI stole her likeness and created a deepfake of her. The deepfake was created without her consent. She shared the story on TikTok.
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.
Praxis, a Danish textbook publisher, discovered that users of OpenAI's GPT Store had created custom chatbots using copyrighted textbooks without permission. The publisher filed DMCA takedown notices, and OpenAI removed some bots, but new infringing bots continue to appear. Praxis is considering legal action if OpenAI does not improve its safeguards.
A journalist testing Europe's iBorderCtrl virtual policeman at the Serbian-Hungarian border gave honest answers but was deemed a liar by the system, scoring 48 out of 100 with four false answers flagged. The Hungarian policeman said the result suggested further checks, though none were carried out. The reporter only learned of the result after filing a data access request under European privacy laws. Experts and transparency activists have criticised the technology as pseudoscientific and potentially discriminatory.
The Hellenic Data Protection Authority (HDPA) imposed an administrative fine of €175,000 on the Ministry of Migration and Asylum (MMA) for GDPR violations related to the 'Centaur' and 'Hyperion' programmes. These systems use AI behavioral analytics, CCTV, drones, and biometric data to monitor and control access to reception facilities for asylum seekers on Greek islands. The HDPA found that the MMA failed to conduct proper Data Protection Impact Assessments and did not cooperate with the authority. The MMA has been ordered to comply with GDPR within three months.
In February 2024, U.S. Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez saw a deepfake image of herself being forced into a sexual act while scrolling through X. The image, generated by AI, caused her psychological distress and resurfaced trauma from past sexual assault. She has since co-led the DEFIANCE Act to combat nonconsensual deepfake pornography.
San Jose has been running a pilot in which cameras on a municipal vehicle feed computer vision software being trained to detect lived-in vehicles and homeless encampments in District 10. The scheme, believed to be the first of its kind in the US, has prompted concern among housing advocates that it could be used to punish and displace unhoused residents. The city says the aim is to respond more efficiently to complaints about encampments and that the footage is not being actively monitored for law enforcement.
A report by Democracy Reporting International found that chatbots from Google, Microsoft, and OpenAI provided incorrect election dates and voting information to users ahead of the European Parliament election. The experiment, conducted in March 2024, tested the chatbots in multiple languages and found that they often hallucinated facts. The European Commission subsequently ordered the companies to explain their measures under the Digital Services Act. Google and Microsoft said they are restricting election-related queries.
YouTube's automated captioning system has been found to insert explicit language into videos intended for children. A study of over 7,000 videos from top kids' channels found that 40% contained taboo words in captions, with 1% including highly inappropriate terms like 'bitch' and 'rape'. The AI mishears words such as 'brave' as 'rape' and 'corn' as 'porn'. YouTube acknowledged the issue and said it is working to improve the system.
The Israeli Defence Force deployed an AI-guided drone swarm to identify and target Hamas militants in Gaza in May 2021. The swarm, controlled by a single human operator, provided targeting information for guided mortar weapons that destroyed multiple Hamas targets and weapons caches. The IDF spokesperson stated this was the first known use of such technology in combat.
On March 27, 2024, a robotic arm at the Vandapac factory in Chonburi, Thailand, fatally crushed a worker who was laying out sheets of material. The robot arm swung down and pinned the man against a bench. Emergency responders rushed him to hospital, but he died from major trauma. Factory authorities denied responsibility, claiming the robot was operating normally and blaming the worker's misjudgment.
The Progressive Tory Party of Alberta posted a video on X that was generated using artificial intelligence. The party later removed the video and acknowledged that the AI-generated content was "bad" and "stilted". They stated they would reshoot the video with real party members. The account that posted the video no longer exists.
A Chinese dubbing artist, Yin, discovered that his voice was being used without permission in a text-to-speech AI product. The product was developed by a software company using recordings provided by a cultural media company, and was made available on a platform operated by a smart technology company. The Beijing Internet Court ruled that the AI-generated voice was highly similar to the plaintiff's voice and infringed his personality rights. The court ordered the defendants to stop infringement and pay damages of 250,000 RMB.
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.
Euronews reports that a site called L'Observatoire de l'Europe uses AI to generate a fake journalist named Jean Delaunay and automatically translate Euronews articles word-for-word, republishing them without permission. The site attributes all articles to the fake journalist. Euronews states that this happens daily and that the site will likely steal this article as well.
Each incident is written from the reporting or the account it cites. A report is an allegation, not a finding.
