AI Incidents
Real-world cases where AI systems caused harm, classified by risk domain and entity. Data sourced from 
AIID and classified by 
MIT AI Risk Initiative. CC BY-SA 4.0
244 incidents
Facebook Alleged in Lawsuit Misleading Public about Effects of Algorithms on Children
Facebook was alleged in a lawsuit by the Ohio Attorney General purposely misleading the public about the control of its algorithms and their negative effects on children's well-being, which violated securities law.
Black Uber Eats Driver Allegedly Subjected to Excessive Photo Checks and Dismissed via FRT Results
A lawsuit by a former Uber Eats delivery driver alleged the company to have wrongfully dismissed him due to frequent false mismatches of his verification selfies, and discriminated against him via excessive verification checks.
Players Manipulated GPT-3-Powered Game to Generate Sexually Explicit Material Involving Children
Latitude's GPT-3-powered game AI Dungeon was reportedly abused by some players who manipulated its AI to generate sexually explicit stories involving children.
TikTok’s "For You" Allegedly Pushed Fatal “Blackout” Challenge Videos to Two Young Girls
TikTok’s recommendation algorithm was alleged in a lawsuit to have intentionally and repeatedly pushed videos of the “blackout” challenge onto children’s feeds, incentivizing their participation which ultimately resulted in the death of two young girls.
California's Algorithm Considered ZIP Codes in Vaccine Distribution, Allegedly Excluding Low-Income Neighborhoods and Communities of Color
California's vaccine-distribution algorithm used ZIP codes as opposed to census tracts in its decision-making, which critics said undermined equity and access for vulnerable communities who are largely low-income, underserved neighborhoods with low Healthy Places Index scores.
Facebook's Advertisement Moderation System Allegedly Routinely Misidentified Adaptive Fashion Products as Medical Equipment and Blocked Their Sellers
Facebook platforms' automated ad moderation system falsely classified adaptive fashion products as medical and health care products and services, resulting in regular bans and appeals faced by their retailers.
Remote Proctoring Facial-Detection Software Reportedly Failed to Detect Black Student During Lab Quiz
In February 2021, a Black college student, Amaya Ross, reportedly tried to take a remote biology lab quiz using proctoring software that could not detect her face. Ross said she spent 45 minutes changing lights, shades, position, and background before pointing an LED flashlight at her face so the app would work; the quiz itself was only 30 minutes.
TikTok’s Content Moderation Allegedly Failed to Adequately Take down Videos Promoting Eating Disorders
Videos promoting eating disorders evaded TikTok's automated violation detection system without difficulty via common misspellings of search terms, bypassing its ban of violating hashtags such as "proana" and "anorexia".
FaceApp Predicted Different Genders for Similar User Photos with Slight Variations
FaceApp’s algorithm was reported by a user to have predicted different genders for two mostly identical facial photos with only a slight difference in eyebrow thickness.
Korean Chatbot Luda Reportedly Made Offensive Remarks Towards Minority Groups in South Korea
A Korean interactive chatbot was allegedly shown in screenshots to have used derogatory and bigoted language when asked about lesbians, Black people, and people with disabilities.
Online Trolls Allegedly Abused TikTok’s Automated Content Reporting System to Discriminate against Marginalized Creators
TikTok's automated content reporting system was allegedly abused by online trolls to intentionally misreport content created by users of marginalized groups.
Proctoring Algorithm in Online California Bar Exam Flagged an Unusually High Number of Alleged Cheaters
The proctoring algorithm used in a California bar exam cited a third of thousands of applicants as cheaters, resulting in allegations where exam takers were instructed to prove otherwise without seeing their incriminating video evidence.
Court Rules Deliveroo Used 'Discriminatory' Algorithm
In December 2020, an Italian court ruled that Deliveroo’s employee ‘reliability’ algorithm illegally discriminated against workers with legitimate reasons for cancelling shifts.
AI Spam Filters Allegedly Block Legitimate Emails Based on Biased Keyword Detection
AlgorithmWatch tested spam filtering algorithms across Gmail, Yahoo, Outlook, GMX, and LaPoste. Their findings reportedly showed that Microsoft Outlook’s spam filter flagged emails based on specific keywords that led to racial and content-based biases blocking legitimate communications. Emails mentioning Nigeria or containing certain financial and sexual health terms were found to be disproportionately marked as spam.
Researchers find evidence of racial, gender, and socioeconomic bias in chest X-ray classifiers
A study by the University of Toronto, the Vector Institute, and MIT showed the input databases that trained AI systems used to classify chest X-rays led the systems to show gender, socioeconomic, and racial biases.