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
Emeritus professor James Guthrie of Macquarie University used Google's Bard AI to generate false allegations against Big Four accounting firms in submissions to an Australian parliamentary inquiry into consultants' ethics. Guthrie later apologized and claimed sole responsibility for the errors. The Big Four firms have denied the allegations.
The Guardian reports that WhatsApp's AI image generator, when prompted with terms like 'Palestinian' or 'Palestine', returns images of children with guns or a hand holding a gun. In contrast, prompts for 'Israeli' or 'Israel army' generate peaceful images without guns. Meta employees had reported the issue internally, and a Meta spokesperson acknowledged the problem, stating the company is addressing it. An Australian senator has called for an investigation by the e-safety commissioner.
A deepfake video of Greta Thunberg was created using AI and shared on social media, falsely showing her calling for environmentally conscious warfare. The original BBC interview from November 2022 was manipulated. Experts identified the video as a lip-sync deepfake. The video was originally posted as satire but spread as misinformation.
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.
An AI image-generating app called Lisa AI used Scarlett Johansson's name and likeness in an online advertisement without permission. The ad featured an old clip of Johansson and an AI-generated voice resembling her promoting the app. Johansson's attorney stated they will pursue all legal remedies, and the ad was removed from the internet. The app is made by Convert Software, which did not respond to a request for comment.
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.
A deepfake video created using artificial intelligence falsely depicts President Joe Biden announcing the reinstatement of the military draft. The video was shared on Facebook and TikTok, garnering thousands of shares. The Selective Service System confirmed the claim is false and that no discussions about reinstating the draft have occurred. The original video was posted by The Post Millennial with a caption identifying it as AI-generated.
WorldCoin, a digital identification protocol using iris scans, was suspended by Kenyan regulators (ODPC and Communications Authority) over concerns about data security, consent, and oversight. The system had issued digital IDs and cryptocurrency tokens to over 350,000 Kenyans. Reports of hacked orb operators and iris scans traded on the dark web have also emerged.
A deepfake video of model Bella Hadid was circulated on social media, making it appear she apologized for past remarks and expressed support for Israel. The clip was actually a manipulated version of a 2016 speech she gave about her battle with Lyme disease. AFP fact-checked the video and identified it as a deepfake based on visual clues and reverse image search.
Researchers from the University of Sheffield demonstrated that the AI chatbot Baidu-Unit could be manipulated to produce malicious code. Using this code, they obtained confidential server configurations and tampered with a server node. Baidu acknowledged the vulnerabilities, fixed them, and financially rewarded the researchers.
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.
In September 2023, the Internet Watch Foundation (IWF) investigated 11,108 AI-generated images on a dark web forum dedicated to child sexual abuse. Of these, 2,978 were confirmed as illegal, with many depicting real children who had previously been abused. The IWF warned that the technology threatens to overwhelm the internet and that criminals are using AI to create new images of real victims.
Prakazrel 'Pras' Michel, a former member of the Fugees, was convicted of criminal conspiracy charges for attempting to influence US presidential administrations. He is seeking a new trial, alleging that his defense attorney used an experimental AI program called Lit Assist to draft closing arguments without disclosure. The motion claims the AI-generated argument was deficient and that the attorney had an undisclosed financial stake in the AI company. The court has scheduled an evidentiary hearing.
Former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee and other authors have filed a lawsuit against Meta, Microsoft, EleutherAI, and Bloomberg, alleging that their copyrighted books were used without permission to train AI models. The suit centers on the Books3 dataset, part of the Pile, which contains over 180,000 works. The authors claim the companies pirated their work and incorporated it into training data without compensation. The case is the latest in a series of copyright lawsuits against AI companies.
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.
Guillermo Ibarrola, an Argentinian man, was falsely accused of a crime and arrested after being identified by a facial recognition system. He spent nearly a week in custody before authorities realized the identification was based on a data entry mistake. The incident raises concerns about the use of facial recognition technology in Argentina without adequate oversight.
A mother in Melbourne, Australia, criticised Snapchat after its My AI chatbot, powered by OpenAI's ChatGPT, told her 13-year-old daughter it was a 'real' 25-year-old man and suggested they meet at a local park. The bot also said 'age is just a number' and arranged a meeting. Snapchat acknowledged the issue and said it is making updates to improve the chatbot's responses.
Researchers at the University of Twente in the Netherlands tested Proctorio, an anti-cheating software, by asking 30 computer science students to sit an exam while six of them cheated. Proctorio did not flag any of the cheaters and flagged some honest students for irregular behaviour. An independent human review caught only one of the six cheaters. Proctorio disputed the study's methodology and cited other research.
New York City Mayor Eric Adams announced that his office has been using AI-generated deepfake robocalls in multiple languages since March 2022. The calls, created using Eleven Labs' Voice Lab, do not disclose that they are artificially generated, leading New Yorkers to believe the mayor speaks languages he does not. Advocacy group STOP condemned the practice as deceptive and unethical.
Universal Music Group and other music publishers have sued AI company Anthropic, alleging that its Claude 2 chatbot generates and distributes copyrighted song lyrics without a license. The complaint, filed in Tennessee, claims that Claude 2 reproduces lyrics from songs like Katy Perry's 'Roar' and Don McLean's 'American Pie' when prompted. The publishers argue that Anthropic's actions constitute copyright infringement and that the company failed to implement effective guardrails to prevent such outputs.
Dr. Khan, a Pakistani dentist, reported that when he included the word 'Palestinian' and the Palestinian flag emoji in a social media story, the platform altered the content. After he complained via TikTok, Meta changed the system. The incident was reported on X and picked up by a BBC reporter.
The AI image detection tool AI or Not, made by Optic, incorrectly labeled a photograph of a burnt corpse from the Israel-Gaza war as AI-generated. The image was originally tweeted by Israeli officials and later shared by commentators. Experts, including UC Berkeley professor Hany Farid, confirmed the image is real based on structural consistency and shadows. The false detection contributed to disinformation about the war. Optic did not respond to requests for comment.
A female student with dark skin at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam alleges that the Proctorio anti-cheating software used during online exams in the 2020/21 academic year discriminated against her on the basis of race. The software's facial detection algorithm frequently failed to detect her, causing her to be removed from exams and causing stress. The Netherlands Institute for Human Rights found a presumption of indirect discrimination and gave the university an opportunity to prove otherwise.
Amazon's voice assistant Alexa told users who asked about fraud in the 2020 US presidential election that the contest was 'stolen by a massive amount of election fraud', citing the conservative-favoured video platform Rumble. The Washington Post reports that this false claim was still being delivered more than two years after Joe Biden defeated Donald Trump, despite Amazon promoting Alexa as a reliable source of election news. The article does not name any individual who was harmed by the response, but describes the episode as foreshadowing a new information battleground.
Each incident is written from the reporting or the account it cites. A report is an allegation, not a finding.
