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
464 incidents
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.
All Image Captions Produced are Violent
MIT Media Lab researchers create AI-powered "psychopath" named Norman by training a model on "dark corners" of Reddit.
Researchers' Homosexual-Men Detection Model Denounced as a Threat to LGBTQ People's Safety and Privacy
Researchers at Stanford Graduate School of Business developed a model that determined, on a binary scale, whether someone was homosexual using only his facial image, which advocacy groups such as GLAAD and the Human Rights Campaign denounced as flawed science and threatening to LGBTQ folks.
'Jewish Baby Strollers' Provided Antisemitic Google Images, Allegedly Resulting from Hate Speech Campaign
Results for Google Images searches for "Jewish baby strollers" reportedly showed offensive, antisemitic results, allegedly a result of a coordinated hate-speech campaign involving malicious actors on 4chan.
"Jewish Baby Strollers" Provided Anti-Semitic Google Images, Allegedly Resulting from Hate Speech Campaign
Google's Image search for "Jewish baby strollers" showed offensive, anti-Semitic results, allegedly a result of a coordinated hate-speech campaign involving malicious actors on 4chan.
New York Detective Reportedly Misused Woody Harrelson's Face to Perform Face Recognition Search
When the facial recognition search for a CVS theft suspect's face returned no useful matches due to the surveillance footage being obscured and highly pixelated, a New York City police detective continued the face search using Woody Harrelson's face allegedly due to his resemblance to the suspect's face, eventually leading to the arrest of an unknown victim.
Male College Freshman Allegedly Made Porn Deepfakes Using Female Friend's Face
A female college student's face was superimposed on another woman's body in deepfake pornographic videos and shared on 4chan allegedly by a male student whose friendship with her fell apart during freshman year.
ByteDance Allegedly Trained "For You" Algorithm Using Content Scraped without Consent from Other Social Platforms
ByteDance allegedly scraped short-form videos, usernames, profile pictures, and descriptions of accounts on Instagram, Snapchat, and other sources, and uploaded them without consent on Flipagram, TikTok’s predecessor, in order to improve its “For You” algorithm's performance on American users.
NYPD's Deployment of Facial Recognition Cameras Reportedly Reinforced Biased Policing
New York Police Department’s use of facial recognition deployment of surveillance cameras were shown using crowdsourced volunteer data reinforcing discriminatory policing against minority communities.
Facebook Ad-Approval Algorithm Allegedly Missed Fraudulent Ads via Simple URL Checks
Facebook’s advertisement-approval algorithm was reported by a security analyst to have neglected simple checks for domain URLs, leaving its users at risk of fraudulent ads.
Facial Recognition Service Abused to Target Russian Porn Actresses
The facial recognition software FindFace allowing its users to match photos to people’s social media pages on Vkontakte was reportedly abused to de-anonymize and harass Russian women who appeared in pornography and alleged sex workers.
Microsoft's TayBot Allegedly Posts Racist, Sexist, and Anti-Semitic Content to Twitter
Microsoft's Tay, an artificially intelligent chatbot, was released on March 23, 2016 and removed within 24 hours due to multiple racist, sexist, and anti-semitic tweets generated by the bot.
Robot Destroyed while Hitchhiking through the United States
A non-actuated conversational robot that previously asked people to move it across Canada was destroyed shortly after beginning its attempt to replicate the journey across the United States.
Facial Recognition Researchers Allegedly Used YouTube Videos of Transgender People Without Consent
YouTube videos of transgender people used by researchers to study facial recognition during gender transitions were allegedly used and distributed without permission.