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
741 incidents
Australian Telco’s Incident Management Bot Excessively Sent Technicians in the Field by Mistake, Allegedly Costing Millions
In early 2018, an Australian telecommunications company’s incident management AI excessively deployed technicians into the field, and was allegedly unable to be stopped by the automation team.
Google Photo Merge Decapitates Subject
Google Photos' AI Assistant created a strange hybrid photograph when merging three different pictures from a ski trip.
Tesla on Autopilot Collided with Parked Fire Truck on California Freeway
A Tesla Model S operating on Autopilot mode crashed into the back of a parked fire truck on a freeway in Culver City, California in a non-fatal collision.
Customer Service Robot Scares Away Customers
Heriot-Watt Univeristy in Scotland developed an artificially intelligent grocery store robot, Fabio, who provided unhelpful answers to customer's questions and "scared away" multiple customers, according to the grocery store Margiotta.
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.
Waze App Allegedly Caused Tourists’ Car to End up in Lake Champlain, Vermont
The tourists driving through Vermont blamed Waze for directing them into a boat launch in Lake Champlain, prompting the vehicle to slide into the water by the time the drivers realized their location in the dark and foggy weather.
Waze Navigates Motorists into Wildfires
Waze, a Google-owned directions app, led California drivers into the 2017 Skirball wildfires as they tried to evacuate the area.
Driverless Train in Delhi Crashes due to Braking Failure
A driverless metro train in Delhi, India crashed during a test run due to faulty brakes.
Instagram's Exposure of Harmful Content Allegedly Contributed to Teenage Girl's Suicide
Instagram was ruled by a judge to have contributed to the death of a teenage girl in the UK allegedly through its exposure and recommendation of suicide, self-harm, and depressive content.
Robot Deployed by Animal Shelter to Patrol Sidewalks outside Its Office, Warding off Homeless People in San Francisco
Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA) deployed a Knightscope robot to autonomously patrol the area outside its office and ward off homeless people, which was criticized by residents as a tool of intimidation and ordered by the city of San Francisco to stop its use on a public right-of-way.
Amazon Alexa Plays Loud Music when Owner is Away
An Amazon Alexa, without instruction to do so, began playing loud music in the early morning while the homeowner was away leading to police breaking into their house to turn off the device.
Las Vegas Self-Driving Bus Involved in Accident
A self-driving public shuttle by Keolis North America and Navya was involved in a collision with a human-driven delivery truck in Las Vegas, Nevada on its first day of service.
iPhone Face ID Failed to Recognize Users’ Morning Faces
The Face ID feature on iPhone allowing users to unlock their phones via facial recognition was reported by users for not recognizing their faces in the morning.
Biased Sentiment Analysis
Google Cloud's Natural Language API provided racist, homophobic, amd antisemitic sentiment analyses.
Facebook translates 'good morning' into 'attack them', leading to arrest
Facebook's automatic language translation software incorrectly translated an Arabic post saying "Good morning" into Hebrew saying "hurt them," leading to the arrest of a Palestinian man in Beitar Illit, Israel.