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
112 incidents
Australian Journalist Able to Access Centrelink Account Using AI Audio of Own Voice
A Guardian journalist was able to verify their identity and gain access to their own Centrelink self-service account using AI-generated audio of their own voice along with their customer reference number, shortly after voiceprint was deployed for ID verification.
ChatGPT Reportedly Implicated in Samsung Data Leak of Source Code and Meeting Notes
Samsung engineers are reported to have inadvertently leaked sensitive company data sometime in March 2023, including source code and internal meeting notes, by using ChatGPT to assist with tasks. ChatGPT allegedly retained the inputted data, leading to a purported breach of confidentiality.
Meta and OpenAI Accused of Using LibGen’s Pirated Books to Train AI Models
Court records reveal that Meta employees allegedly discussed pirating books to train LLaMA 3, citing cost and speed concerns with licensing. Internal messages suggest Meta accessed LibGen, a repository of over 7.5 million pirated books, with apparent approval from Mark Zuckerberg. Employees allegedly took steps to obscure the dataset’s origins. OpenAI has also been implicated in using LibGen.
Bing Chat's Initial Prompts Revealed by Early Testers Through Prompt Injection
Early testers of Bing Chat successfully used prompt injection to reveal its built-in initial instructions, which contains a list of statements governing ChatGPT's interaction with users.
Lawyers Denied Entry to Performance Venue by Facial Recognition
Lawyers were barred from entry to Madison Square Garden after a facial recognition system matched them as employed by a law firm currently engaged in litigation with the venue.
Stable Diffusion Allegedly Used Artists' Works without Permission for AI Training
Text-to-image model Stable Diffusion was reportedly using artists' original works without permission for its AI training.
Stable Diffusion's Training Data Contained Copyrighted Images
Stability AI reportedly scraped copyrighted images by Getty Images to be used as training data for Stable Diffusion model.
GPT-3-Based Twitter Bot Hijacked Using Prompt Injection Attacks
Remoteli.io's GPT-3-based Twitter bot was shown being hijacked by Twitter users who redirected it to repeat or generate any phrases.
Facial Recognition Trial by UK Southern Co-op Alleged as Unlawful
Southern Co-op's use of facial recognition reportedly to curb violent crime in UK supermarkets was alleged by civil society and privacy groups as "unlawful" and "complete" invasion of privacy.
Users Reported Security Issues with Google Pixel 6a's Fingerprint Unlocking
Google Pixel 6a's fingerprint recognition feature was reported by users for security issues, in which phones were mistakenly unlocked by unregistered fingerprints.
Australian Retailers Reportedly Captured Face Prints of Their Customers without Consent
Major Australian retailers reportedly analyzed in-store footage to capture facial features of their customers without consent, which was criticized by consumer groups as creepy and invasive.
Private Medical Photos Were Reportedly Found in LAION-5B AI Training Dataset
In September 2022, an artist using the name Lapine reported finding private post-operative medical photos of herself in LAION-5B, a web-scraped image-text dataset used in AI image-synthesis research. Ars Technica confirmed her images were referenced in the dataset and reported finding thousands of similar patient medical-record photos.
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).