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
13 incidents
Nippon Life Alleged ChatGPT Practiced Law Without a License in Illinois Disability Case
Nippon Life sued OpenAI in Chicago, alleging ChatGPT acted as an unlicensed lawyer by helping a former disability claimant reopen a settled case and generate numerous meritless filings. The insurer claimed the conduct caused legal expense and abuse-of-process harms. OpenAI said the complaint lacks merit.
Seedance 2.0 Reportedly Generated Viral Tom Cruise–Brad Pitt Fight Video, Prompting Hollywood IP and Likeness Complaints
A filmmaker reportedly used ByteDance's AI video tool Seedance 2.0 to create and post a purportedly realistic clip depicting Tom Cruise fighting Brad Pitt, which then circulated widely online. Industry groups and studios publicly alleged the tool enables unauthorized use of copyrighted material and performers' likeness, and at least one studio reportedly sent a cease-and-desist letter. ByteDance said it respects IP and would strengthen safeguards.
The New York Times Sued Perplexity for Allegedly Using Copyrighted Content and Generating False Attributions
On December 5, 2025, The New York Times sued Perplexity, alleging the company used copyrighted Times articles without permission to train its AI system and generated outputs that reproduced Times content or falsely attributed fabricated information to the newspaper. The suit claims the conduct harmed the Times's business and brand. Perplexity denies wrongdoing.
LLM Scrapers Allegedly Target Multiple Open Source Projects Disrupting the FOSS Ecosystem
In mid-March 2025, KDE's GitLab infrastructure was reportedly disrupted by aggressive AI web scrapers originating from Alibaba IP ranges. These bots allegedly ignored robots.txt and spoofed browser headers, which in turn purportedly overwhelmed the site and caused outages for developers. Similar incidents reportedly affected other FOSS projects like GNOME, SourceHut, and Fedora. The scraping is allegedly tied to large language model training, and reportedly imposes real costs and delays.
Fast Food Chains' AI Chatbots Failed to Assist Job Applicants with Scheduling Interviews
McDonald's, Wendy's, and Hardee's AI chatbots deployed to pre-screen job candidates and schedule interviews reportedly ran into issues such as not giving useful submission instructions, failing to relay information to the manager, and scheduling an interview when the manager was not available.
Amazon Allegedly Tweaked Search Algorithm to Boost Its Own Products
Amazon tweaked product-search algorithm to boost and guide customers towards more profitable in-house products instead of showing mainly most-relevant and best-selling listings, which its internal engineers and lawyers alleged to violate company’s best-for-customer principle.
Gmail’s Inbox Sorting System Reportedly Reduced Visibility of Political Emails and Campaign Calls-to-Action
Google's Gmail inbox sorting algorithm for political emails was reported by presidential candidates, nonprofits, and advocacy groups for having negative impact on call-to-actions, allegedly suppressing donations and impeding political actions.
Google Fined for Changing Shopping Algorithms in EU to Favor Own Service
Google was fined by EU Commission for changing its shopping algorithms in Europe to favor its own comparison service over competitors, resulting in anti-competitive effects.
Amazon India Allegedly Rigged Search Results to Promote Own Products
Amazon India allegedly copied products and rigged search algorithm to boost its own brands in search ranking, violating antitrust laws.
RealPage Algorithm Allegedly Inflates Rents and Reduces Competition in Housing Market
RealPage’s YieldStar pricing algorithm is at the center of allegations that it enabled landlords to coordinate rent increases by sharing nonpublic pricing and occupancy data, raising rents artificially and reducing competition. On January 7, 2025, the U.S. Department of Justice filed an antitrust lawsuit against six major landlords, alleging that they used the algorithm and other direct communication methods to stifle competition, harming renters nationwide.
Amazon Flex Drivers Allegedly Fired via Automated Employee Evaluations
Amazon Flex's contract delivery drivers were dismissed using a minimally human-interfered automated employee performance evaluation based on indicators impacted by out-of-driver's-control factors and without having a chance to defend against or appeal the decision.
Kronos Scheduling Algorithm Allegedly Caused Financial Issues for Starbucks Employees
Kronos’s scheduling algorithm and its use by Starbucks managers allegedly negatively impacted financial and scheduling stability for Starbucks employees, which disadvantaged wage workers.
Apple Tweaked App Store Ranking Algorithms, Allegedly Resulted in Demotion of Local Apps in China
Following Apple’s changes in ranking algorithm in its iTunes App Store, apps by allegedly reputable companies and local startups in China experienced significant drops in ranking order.
Risk Taxonomy
Caused By
Year Trend
* Oct 2026, ~320 projected full year
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