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
Waze Allegedly Clogged Streets and Directed Drivers to Make Unsafe Traffic Decisions
For years, Waze has, in an attempt to cut travel times, allegedly caused more traffic and guided drivers to make unsafe and often un-permitted traffic decisions, which was described by a Los Angeles city council member as a threat to public safety.
Facebook’s On-This-Day Feature Mistakenly Showed Painful Memories to Users
Facebook’s “On This Day” algorithm which highlighted past posts on a user’s private page or News Feed confronted unwanted and painful personal memories to its users.
UK Visa Streamline Algorithm Allegedly Discriminated Based on Nationality
UK Home Office's algorithm to assess visa application risks explicitly considered nationality, allegedly caused candidates to face more scrutiny and discrimination.
Facebook Automated Year-in-Review Highlights Showed Users Painful Memories
Facebook’s “Year in Review” algorithm which compiled content in users’ past year as highlights inadvertently showed painful and unwanted memories to users, including death of family member.
Employee Automatically Terminated by Computer Program
An employee was laid off, allegedly by an artificially intelligent personnel system, and blocked from access to the building and computer systems without their knowledge.
Uber Autonomous Cars Running Red Lights
Uber vehicles equipped with technology allowing for autonomous driving running red lights in San Francisco street testing.
Robot kills worker at German Volkswagen plant
A Volkswagen plant robot "crushed to death" a worker by pinning him to a metal plate.
Misreading of an Automated License Plate Reader (ALPR) Unverified by Police, Resulting in Traffic Stop in Missouri
An automated license plate reader (ALPR) camera misread a 7 as a 2 and incorrectly alerted the local police about a stolen Oldsmobile car, which was allegedly not able to be verified by an officer before a traffic stop was effected on a BMW in Kansas City suburb.
Facebook's Auto-Generated Targeting Ad Categories Contained Anti-Semitic Options
Facebook's automated advertising categories generated using users' declared interests contained anti-Semitic categories such as "Jew hater" and "How to burn Jews" which were listed as fields of study.
Nest Smoke Alarm Erroneously Stops Alarming
In testing, Google Nest engineers demonstrated that the Nest Wave feature of their Nest Protect: Smoke + CO Alarm could inadvertently silence genuine alarms.
ETS Used Allegedly Flawed Voice Recognition Evidence to Accuse and Assess Scale of Cheating, Causing Thousands to be Deported from the UK
International testing organization ETS admits voice recognition as evidence of cheating for thousands of previous TOEIC test-takers that reportedly included wrongfully accused people, causing them to be deported without an appeal process or seeing their incriminating evidence.
Excessive Automated Monitoring Alerts Ignored by Staff, Resulting in Private Data Theft of Seventy Million Target Customers
Alerts about a Target data breach were ignored by Minneapolis Target’s staff reportedly due to them being included with many other potential false alerts, and due to some of the company’s network infiltration alerting systems being off to reduce such false alerts, causing private data theft for millions of customers.
Michigan's Unemployment Benefits Algorithm MiDAS Issued False Fraud Claims to Thousands of People
Michigan’s MiDAS system falsely accused over 34,000 people of unemployment fraud from 2013 to 2015, which reportedly caused financial ruin for many. The automated system was designed to cut costs, but it adjudicated fraud cases without human oversight. That led to an 85% error rate. Victims faced wage garnishments, some lost homes, and some faced bankruptcy. Despite early warnings, Michigan’s UIA defended MiDAS until lawsuits and federal pressure forced reforms. Legislators have been seeking compensation for those wrongfully accused.
Compromise of National Biometric ID Card System Leads to Reverification and Change of Status
When the leader of the Afghan Taliban was found possessing a valid ID card in the Pakistani national biometric identification database system, Pakistan launch a national re-verification campaign that is linked to numerous changes in recognition status and loss of services.
Sexist and Racist Google Adsense Advertisements
Advertisements chosen by Google Adsense are reported as producing sexist and racist results.