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
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On August 28, on the Shanghai-Kunming Expressway, a woman driving an SUV with driver assistance engaged rear-ended a bus that suddenly changed lanes. She assumed the system would brake automatically and took no action. The bus driver was found at fault for the lane change, but police warned against over-reliance on driver assistance.
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.
The Nigerian government has begun collecting fingerprints and photos of children as young as five for the National Home Grown School Feeding Programme. The biometric enrollment aims to confirm eligibility and increase transparency, but the exercise has started before the country's data protection law comes into effect. The motives for collection are unclear, and there have been technical issues with the enrollment tablets. The program already feeds nine million children daily.
A woman in Moscow was arrested on 1 March 2022 after she posted a coded protest message on social media. She believes she was detected by facial-recognition software on the Moscow Metro system. The authorities presented a screenshot of her tweet in her court hearing. The article reports that she was arrested while taking a train, five days after her post.
Hackers used deep voice technology to impersonate a person and steal $35 million. The Dubai Public Prosecution Office is investigating the money laundering that occurred in January 2020. The United States Department of Justice filed an application to assist the UAE in collecting evidence.
Residents of a dead-end street in San Francisco's Richmond District say Waymo self-driving cars have been driving down their street and making U-turns every five minutes for six to eight weeks. The constant hum of the vehicles has become a nuisance for neighbours working from home. Waymo said the cars were obeying road rules, taking a U-turn due to Slow Streets signage on Lake, and that it continually adjusts to dynamic San Francisco road rules.
A Japanese man was arrested by Kyoto Prefectural Police for using a deep-learning video-clarifying tool called TecoGAN to de-pixelate over 2,500 pornographic video files. The man allegedly earned over $96,000 from this activity. He is accused of violating both copyright and obscenity laws, and has reportedly admitted to the charges. This is reportedly the first arrest of its kind in Japan.
Facial recognition cameras have been introduced in UK school canteens. The Financial Times reports on this development.
Taiwanese YouTuber Chu Yu-chen, known as Xiaoyu, was arrested and released on bail for allegedly creating and selling deepfake porn videos featuring over 100 politicians and influencers. The videos were made by superimposing faces onto existing pornographic content using deep learning technology, without consent. Victims, including Kaohsiung City Councilor Huang Jie, filed legal proceedings, and the Ministry of Justice began drafting amendments to address deepfakes.
Ghost Robotics, a military robot maker, shared an image of a quadrupedal robot dog with a sniper rifle attached. The robot, called the Vision-60, is equipped with the Special Purpose Unmanned Rifle (SPUR) by Sword International. The level of autonomy is unknown, and the system is designed for precision fire on unmanned platforms. The development has raised concerns about autonomous weapons.
The BBC investigation revealed that plots of Amazon rainforest were being illegally sold on Facebook Marketplace, including inside protected areas and indigenous reserves. Facebook initially declined to take independent action but later announced it would review listings against a database of protected areas to block illegal sales. Brazil's Supreme Federal Court ordered an inquiry into the practice.
The Markup investigated Amazon's product search results and found that the company's algorithm prioritizes its own house brands and exclusive products over competitors, even when competitors have higher ratings and more reviews. A national survey commissioned by The Markup found that 90% of respondents were unaware that Amazon's highest-selling house brands were owned by the company. Amazon denied favoring its own brands in search results.
MTV Lebanon aired a deepfake video on its online platforms showing two victims of the 2020 Beirut port explosion, Ralph Mallahi and Amin Al-Zahed, speaking directly to the camera. The video, aimed at commemorating the victims and demanding justice, was widely condemned on social media as unethical, traumatising, and emotionally manipulative. Some viewers reported the video for causing psychological harm.
Minneapolis Public Schools deployed Gaggle, an AI-powered surveillance system, to monitor students' school-issued Google and Microsoft accounts during remote learning. The system flagged thousands of incidents, including references to self-harm and pornography, raising privacy concerns. Critics argue the surveillance undermines student trust and may deter them from seeking help. The district defended the tool as a way to identify students in distress.
BuzzFeed News discovered that Google's advertising platform allowed a campaign to target people searching racist phrases, and that Google's keyword tool suggested additional offensive terms. The campaign served 17 ad impressions before Google disabled most of the keywords after being contacted. Google acknowledged the breach of its policies and said it had turned off the suggestions.
The system tracked vehicle locations, enabling the deputy to stalk and intimidate family members, his wife, former girlfriends, and others.
In a major tax fraud case in Shanghai, criminals used face recognition cracking techniques to register shell companies on government platforms. They purchased high-resolution photos and used apps to create fake videos, then used modified phones to bypass face recognition authentication. The scheme resulted in fraudulent invoices totaling over 500 million yuan. The case was prosecuted by the Shanghai procuratorate.
Google Health deployed a deep-learning system to screen for diabetic retinopathy in 11 clinics across Thailand. The AI was highly accurate in lab tests but rejected over a fifth of eye scans in real-world conditions due to poor lighting and slow internet. Patients whose scans were rejected had to visit specialists at other clinics, causing inconvenience and frustration for nurses. Google Health is now working with local staff to improve the system's workflow.
The Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) has awarded a £3 million, four-year contract to Northgate Public Services for a new retrospective facial-recognition (RFR) system to be deployed within three months. RFR processes biometric information from historic CCTV, social media, and other images to identify suspects and missing persons, operating retroactively unlike live facial recognition. The procurement was approved by the Mayor's Office for Policing and Crime in August 2021. The MPS states that human-in-the-loop decision-making will be used, but digital rights groups and a former biometrics commissioner have raised concerns about potential discrimination, overrepresentation of marginalised groups in watch lists, and lack of a legislative framework.
YouTube's search autofill algorithm suggested pedophiliac phrases such as 'how to have s*x with your kids' to users searching for 'how to have'. Dozens of users reported the disturbing results. YouTube acknowledged the issue, removed the autocomplete suggestions, and said it is investigating the cause, which may be a coordinated trolling campaign.
Google's knowledge graph algorithm incorrectly associated a photo of software engineer Hristo Georgiev with a Wikipedia entry for a serial killer who shared his name. Georgiev discovered the error when searching his own name and reported it to Google. The company removed the image from the infobox, resolving the issue.
Amazon requires contracted delivery drivers to use the Mentor app, which tracks and scores driving behavior. Drivers report that the app falsely detects infractions, such as incoming calls or picking up a device, causing their scores to drop. This leads to disciplinary actions including firing, loss of bonuses, and reduced pay. Amazon has not addressed the specific allegations.
Amazon's routing algorithm for its Flex app uses 'stop consolidation' to combine deliveries on both sides of the street, requiring drivers to cross busy roads and highways on foot to save time. Drivers in multiple states reported safety risks, including sprinting across four-lane highways. Amazon denied that drivers frequently jaywalk and said it fixes map defects.
Facebook is facing criticism after the Wall Street Journal reported that Instagram kept secret internal research showing the platform harmed teenagers' mental health. The research reportedly found Instagram worsened body-image issues for one in three teenage girls and that some teenage users blamed the app for anxiety, depression and suicidal thoughts. Campaign groups and MPs accused Facebook of putting profit before harm, while Instagram defended its research and said it had developed safety features. The company said it would be more transparent in future.
Each incident is written from the reporting or the account it cites. A report is an allegation, not a finding.
