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
1,751 incidents
Northern Ireland MLA Cara Hunter Allegedly Targeted by Deepfake Pornography Ahead of May 2022 Assembly Election
Sometime in April 2022, reportedly some weeks before the May 5, 2022 Northern Ireland Assembly election, Member of the Legislative Assembly Cara Hunter was targeted in a deepfake pornography incident. A fake video depicting her in explicit scenarios is reported to have circulated widely on WhatsApp. Law enforcement have as of yet been unable to trace the origins of the video, according to reports. Additionally, it is alleged that about six months after the initial incident, she was the target of at least 15 more AI-generated deepfakes depicting her likeness in underwear.
AI-Generated Faces Used by Scammers to Pose as a Law Firm in Boston
GAN faces were allegedly used by scammers alongside a parked domain and a fake website to impersonate a Boston law firm.
TuSimple Truck Steered into Interstate Freeway Divide
A TuSimple autonomous truck operating with backup drivers behind the wheel operated on an outdated command sequence and suddenly veered into the center divide on the interstate freeway.
Cruise Autonomous Car Blocked Fire Truck Responding to Emergency
A fire truck in San Francisco responding to a fire was blocked from passing a doubled-parked garbage truck by a self-driving Cruise car on the opposing lane which stayed put and did not reverse to clear the lane.
Starship Delivery Robot Ran into Problems Traversing Campus Terrains
A Starship autonomous delivery robot struggled to navigate campus terrains of UCLA, reportedly getting stuck into a planter and falling off the stairs.
Cruise Autonomous Taxi Allegedly Bolted off from Police After Being Pulled over in San Francisco
An autonomous Chevy Bolt operated by Cruise was pulled over in San Francisco, and as the police attempted to engage with the car, it reportedly bolted off, pulled over again, and put on its hazards lights on at a point farther down the road.
DALL-E 2 Reported for Gender and Racially Biased Outputs
Developers of OpenAI's DALL-E 2 cited risks of the model, varying from misuse as disinformation and explicit content generation, to gender and racial bias.
Evolv AI Weapons Detection System Allegedly Misrepresents Accuracy, Leading to School Security Gaps
Evolv's AI-powered weapons scanners were advertised as superior to metal detectors but reportedly failed to detect actual weapons while generating excessive false positives. The FTC alleged that misleading claims about the system's accuracy and speed contributed to schools relying on unreliable detection, with at least one incident in October 2022 involving a missed knife that resulted in a student being stabbed.
Three Make-Up Artists Lost Jobs Following Black-Box Automated Decision by HireVue
Three make-up artists lost their positions following an algorithmically-assessed video interview by HireVue who reportedly failed to provide adequate explanation of the findings.
Deepfake Video of Ukrainian President Yielding to Russia Posted on Ukrainian Websites and Social Media
A quickly-debunked deepfaked video of the Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was posted on various Ukrainian websites and social media platforms encouraging Ukrainians to surrender to Russian forces during the Russia-Ukraine war.
Cruise Taxis' Sudden Braking Allegedly Put People at Risk
Cruise's autonomous taxis slowed suddenly, braked, and were hit from behind, allegedly becoming unexpected roadway obstacles and potentially putting passengers and other people at risk.
Police Officer in Seoul, South Korea, Alleged to Have Created and Shared Sexually Explicit Deepfakes of Acquaintances
A police officer at Dongdaemun Police Station in Seoul, South Korea, was accused of using an AI app to create roughly 400 sexually explicit deepfake videos from acquaintances' photographs and sharing about 50 through Telegram. He was also charged with possessing about 1,600 child sexual abuse videos. Reporting does not establish whether that material was AI-generated. He was indicted following an undercover police investigation.
A Road Engineer Killed Following a Collision Involving a Tesla on Autopilot
In Taiwan, a Tesla Model 3 on Autopilot mode whose driver did not pay attention to the road collided with a road repair truck; a road engineer immediately placed crash warnings in front of the Tesla, but soon after got hit and was killed by a BMW when its driver failed to see the sign and crashed into the accident.
Private Medical Photos Were Reportedly Found in LAION-5B AI Training Dataset
In September 2022, an artist using the name Lapine reported finding private post-operative medical photos of herself in LAION-5B, a web-scraped image-text dataset used in AI image-synthesis research. Ars Technica confirmed her images were referenced in the dataset and reported finding thousands of similar patient medical-record photos.
Starship’s Autonomous Food Delivery Robot Allegedly Stranded at Railroad Crossing in Oregon, Run over by Freight Train
A Starship food delivery robot deployed by Oregon State University reportedly failed to cross the railroad, becoming stranded, and ending up being struck by an oncoming freight train.