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
53 incidents
A Chinese Tech Worker at Zhihu Fired Allegedly via a Resignation Risk Prediction Algorithm
The firing of an employee at Zhihu, a large Q&A platform in China, was allegedly caused by the use of a behavioral perception algorithm which claimed to predict a worker’s resignation risk using their online footprints, such as browsing history and internal communication.
Local South Korean Government’s Use of CCTV Footage Analysis via Facial Recognition to Track COVID Cases Raised Concerns about Privacy, Retention, and Potential Misuse
Bucheon government's use of facial recognition in analyzing CCTV footage, despite gaining wide public support, was scrutinized by privacy advocates and some lawmakers for collecting data without consent, and retaining and misusing data beyond pandemic needs.
McDonald's AI Drive-Thru Allegedly Collected Biometric Customer Data without Consent, Violating BIPA
McDonald's use of chatbot in its AI drive-through in Chicago was alleged in a lawsuit to have collected and processed voice data without user consent to predict customer information, which violated Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA).
Xsolla Employees Fired by CEO Allegedly via Big Data Analytics of Work Activities
Xsolla CEO fired more than a hundred employees from his company in Perm, Russia, based on big data analysis of their remote digitized-work activity, which critics said was violating employee's privacy, outdated, and extremely ineffective.
Amazon Allegedly Forced Deployment of AI-Powered Cameras on Delivery Drivers
Amazon delivery drivers were allegedly forced to consent to algorithmic collection and processing of their location, movement, and biometric data through AI-powered cameras, or be dismissed.
Meta Allegedly Used Books3, a Dataset of 191,000 Pirated Books, to Train LLaMA AI
Meta and Bloomberg allegedly used Books3, a dataset containing 191,000 pirated books, to train their AI models, including LLaMA and BloombergGPT, without author consent. Lawsuits from authors such as Sarah Silverman and Michael Chabon claim this constitutes copyright infringement. Books3 includes works from major publishers like Penguin Random House and HarperCollins. Meta argues its AI outputs are not "substantially similar" to the original books, but legal challenges continue.
Miami Police Deployed Facial Recognition to Arrest George Floyd Protestor Allegedly without Cause
Miami Police's arrest report for a George Floyd protestor did not disclose use of facial recognition, which allegedly did not meet the legal threshold for probable cause for arrest.
South Korean Agencies Reportedly Shared Airport Travelers' Face Images with Companies to Train Immigration Facial Recognition System
Reporting in 2021 alleged that South Korea's Ministry of Justice shared roughly 170 million face images and related biometric data from Korean and foreign airport travelers with the Ministry of Science and Information and Communication Technology (ICT) and private companies for an AI identification and tracking system used in immigration screening. The data was reportedly used for AI training and algorithm testing without travelers' consent.
Buenos Aires Government Reportedly Used Children's Personal Data in Facial Recognition System for Fugitives
Beginning in April 2019, the Buenos Aires city government reportedly used data from Argentina’s CONARC fugitive database, including children’s identities and reference photos, in its live Facial Recognition System for Fugitives (SRFP). Human Rights Watch found at least 166 children had appeared in CONARC between 2017 and 2020 and warned that the system exposed them to privacy violations and elevated risks of false matches.
Ever AI Reportedly Deceived Customers about FRT Use in App
Ever AI, now Paravision AI, allegedly failed to inform customers about the development and use of facial recognition that facilitates the sale of customers’ data to various businesses, a business model that critics said was an egregious violation of privacy.
OpenAI Alleged by Lawsuit Violated Users' Privacy Rights by Training AI on Private Info without Informed Consent
OpenAI's products such as ChatGPT and DALL-E were alleged in a lawsuit using stolen private information from internet users without their informed consent or knowledge.
OpenAI's Training Data for LLMs Allegedly Comprised of Copyrighted Books
Two authors alleged in a class action lawsuit OpenAI infringed authors' copyrights by incorporating illegal "shadow libraries" offering copyrighted books without permission in the training data of its generative LLMs, such as ChatGPT.
Calgary Malls Reportedly Deployed Facial Recognition Without Customer Consent
Facial recognition (FRT) was reportedly deployed in some Calgary-area malls to approximate customer age and gender without explicit consent, which a privacy expert warned was a cause for concern.
Amazon Allegedly Violated Children's Privacy through Default Voice Collection Settings
Amazon's retention of children' voice recordings indefinitely as the default setting reportedly to train Alexa's voice recognition for Alexa-enabled devices was charged by the FTC and DOJ to violate COPPA Rule.
Facial Recognition Program in São Paulo Metro Stations Suspended for Illegal and Disproportionate Violation of Citizens' Right to Privacy
A facial recognition program rolled out by São Paulo Metro Stations was suspended following a court ruling in response to a lawsuit by civil society organizations, who cited fear of it being integrated with other electronic surveillance entities without consent, and lack of transparency about the biometric data collection process of metro users.