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
314 incidents
Security Robot Rolls Over Child in Mall
On July 7, 2016, a Knightscope K5 autonomous security robot collided with a 16-month old boy while patrolling the Stanford Shopping Center in Palo Alto, CA.
Tesla on AutoPilot Killed Driver in Crash in Florida while Watching Movie
A Tesla Model S on autopilot crashed into a white articulated tractor-trailer on Highway US 27A in Williston, Florida, killing the driver.
A Collection of Tesla Autopilot-Involved Crashes
Multiple unrelated car accidents result in varying levels of harm have been occurred while a Tesla's autopilot was in use.
The DAO Hack
On June 18, 2016, an attacker successfully exploited a vulnerability in The Decentralized Autonomous Organization (The DAO) on the Ethereum blockchain to steal 3.7M Ether valued at $70M.
Robots in Japanese Hotel Annoyed Guests and Failed to Handle Simple Tasks
A number of robots employed by a hotel in Japan were reported by guests in a series of complaints for failing to handle tasks such as answering scheduling questions or making passport copies without human intervention.
Game AI System Produces Imbalanced Game
Elite: Dangerous, a videogame developed by Frontier Development, received an expansion update that featured an AI system that went rogue and began to create weapons that were "impossibly powerful" and would "shred people" according to complaints on the game's blog.
Tesla on Autopilot TACC Crashed into Van on European Highway
A Tesla Model S operating on the Traffic-Aware Cruise Control (TACC) feature of Autopilot was shown on video by its driver crashing into a parked van on a European highway in heavy traffic, which damaged the front of the car.
Unreliable ShotSpotter Audio Convicted Black Rochester Man of Shooting Police
ShotSpotter's "unreliable" audio was used as scientific evidence to accuse and convict a Black man of attempting to shoot Rochester's city police, whose conviction was later reversed by a county judge.
Google Waymo Vehicle and Bus Allegedly Collide in California
On February 14, 2016, a Google autonomous test vehicle partially responsible for a low-speed collision with a bus on El Camino Real in Google’s hometown of Mountain View, CA.
Self-driving cars in winter
Volvo autonomous driving XC90 SUV's experienced issues in Jokkmokk, Sweden when sensors used for automated driving iced over during the winter, rendering them useless.
Dutch City Court Defended Home Value Generated by Black-Box Algorithm
A home value generated by a black-box algorithm was reportedly defended by the Castricum court, which was criticized by a legal specialist for setting a dangerous precedent for accepting black-box algorithms as long as their results appear reasonable.
A Tesla Crashed into and Killed a Road Sweeper on a Highway in China
A Tesla Model S collided with and killed a road sweeper on a highway near Handan, China, an accident where Tesla previously said it was not able to determine whether Autopilot was operating at the time of the crash.
Arkansas's Opaque Algorithm to Allocate Health Care Excessively Cut Down Hours for Beneficiaries
Beneficiaries of the Arkansas Department of Human Services (DHS)'s Medicaid waiver program were allocated excessively fewer hours of caretaker visit via an algorithm deployed to boost efficiency, which reportedly contained errors and whose outputs varied wildly despite small input changes.
Amazon Alexa Responding to Environmental Inputs
There are multiple reports of Amazon Alexa products (Echo, Echo Dot) reacting and acting upon unintended stimulus, usually from television commercials or news reporter's voices.
Predictive Policing Program by Florida Sheriff’s Office Allegedly Violated Residents’ Rights and Targeted Children of Vulnerable Groups
The Intelligence-Led Policing model rolled out by the Pasco County Sheriff’s Office was allegedly developed based on flawed science and biased data that also contained sensitive information and irrelevant attributes about students, which critics said to be discriminatory.