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
961 incidents
Starship Delivery Robot Scuffed Bumper of a Resident’s Car in Texas, Allegedly Refusing to Release Footage of the Accident
A Starship food delivery robot crashed into the front bumper of a vehicle waiting at a stoplight intersection in Frisco, Texas, the video of which the company reportedly refused to release.
Facebook’s Moderation Algorithm Banned Users for Historical Evidence of Slavery
Facebook’s automated content moderation was acknowledged by a company spokesperson to have erroneously censored and banned Australian users from posting an article containing a 1890s photo of Aboriginal men in chains over nudity as historical evidence of slavery in Australia.
Kristen Bell Deepfaked in Non-Consensual AI-Generated Pornography
The actor Kristen Bell discovered that her likeness was exploited by creators of deepfake pornography, who shared their non-consensual sexual depictions of her on the Internet.
Microsoft’s Algorithm Allegedly Selected Photo of the Wrong Mixed-Race Person Featured in a News Story
A news story published on MSN.com featured a photo of the wrong mixed-race person that was allegedly selected by an algorithm, following Microsoft’s layoff and replacement of journalists and editorial workers at its organizations with AI systems.
University of Toronto's ProctorU Deployment Reportedly Disadvantaged BIPOC Students During Exam Check-Ins
University of Toronto students reported that ProctorU and other online exam-monitoring services created discriminatory and stressful check-in experiences for BIPOC students during remote exams. One U of T student said ProctorU's identity-verification process often failed to recognize her passport, forcing manual checks and consuming exam check-in time. ProctorU said human proctors made final identity and integrity decisions.
Tesla on Autopilot Crashed into Flipped Truck on Taiwan Highway
On a highway in Taiwan, a Tesla Sedan, reportedly operating on Autopilot mode, crashed into a large overturned truck, barely missing a pedestrian.
Unreliable ShotSpotter Audio Previously Used to Convict Chicago Man in Murder Case
ShotSpotter audios were previously admitted to convict an innocent Black man in a murder case in Chicago, resulted in his nearly-one-year-long arrest before being dismissed by prosecutors as insufficient evidence.
YouTube Auto-Moderation Reportedly Banned Women of Sex Tech Conference
YouTube’s automated content moderation tool erroneously removed The Women of Sex Tech conference's live-streamed event and banned the conference from the platform, despite not violating the platform’s sexual content policies.
Walmart's Bagging-Detection False Positives Exposed Workers to Health Risk
Walmart's theft-deterring bagging-detection system allegedly exposed workers to health risks during the coronavirus pandemic when its false positives prompted workers to unnecessarily step in to resolve the issue.
Facebook Content Moderators Demand Better Working Conditions Due to Allegedly Inadequate AI Content Moderation
Content moderators and employees at Facebook demand better working conditions, as automated content moderation system allegedly failed to achieve sufficient performance and exposed human reviewers to psychologically hazardous content such as graphic violence and child abuse.
Autonomous Kargu-2 Drone Allegedly Remotely Used to Hunt down Libyan Soldiers
In Libya, a Turkish-made Kargu-2 aerial drone powered by a computer vision model was allegedly used remotely by forces backed by the Tripoli-based government to track down and attack enemies as they were running from rocket attacks.
Personal voice assistants struggle with black voices, new study shows
A study found that voice recognition tools from Apple, Amazon, Google, IBM, and Microsoft disproportionately made errors when transcribing black speakers.
University of Illinois' Proctorio Remote-Proctoring Deployment Reportedly Raised Student Rights Concerns
Beginning in March 2020, the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign deployed Proctorio for remote exam proctoring after the COVID-19 shift to online instruction. Students and faculty raised concerns that the software surveilled students' homes and devices, created accessibility barriers, increased testing anxiety, and could flag students when facial-detection tools failed to detect their faces, with particular concern for students of color. UIUC later declined to renew its emergency contract.
Bug in Facebook’s Anti-Spam Filter Allegedly Blocked Legitimate Posts about COVID-19
Facebook was reported by users for blocking posts of legitimate news about the coronavirus pandemic, allegedly due to a bug in an anti-spam system.
Permanent Removal of Social Media Content via Automated Tools Allegedly Prevented Investigative Efforts
Automated permanent removal of violating social media content, such as terrorism, violent extremism, and hate speech, without archival has allegedly hindered the potential use of this content for investigating serious crimes and hampered efforts in criminal accountability.