AI Incident Report for July and August 2022
The Artificial Intelligence Incident Database (AIID) contains a wealth of historical instances of AI harms providing insights for the future development and deployment of artificial intelligence. This compilation of AI incidents published in July and August of 2022 highlights emerging incidents and provides a digest of recent additions to the database.
From troubling bias and censorship concerns to physical injury, July and August saw a variety of headlines from emerging incidents in AI. Chatbots made offensive and accusatory statements, while a robot infamously broke a child’s finger during a match while on camera. Language translation and image rendering software made waves with offensive content.
A deeper dive in the database from the July and August feed reveals a broader variety of incidents. With increasing deployments and competition in the autonomous vehicle space, the number of reports received from United States roads has seen an uptick. The big tech companies like Google and the social networks continue to make news with algorithms gone awry. Adding to this are a variety of new reports on policing and enforcement in the real world showing a variety of bias and safety harms.
Emerging Incidents
Incidents that occurred in July/August.
07/18/2022: Incident 285: Google Lens’s Camera Translation Feature Provided an Offensive Mistranslation of a Book Title in Korean
07/21/2022: Incident 241: Chess Robot Broke Child's Finger in Russia (5 reports)
07/24/2022: Incident 271: Tesla Model 3 Sedan on Autopilot Killed Motorcyclist in a Rear Collision in Utah
08/07/2022: Incident 278: Meta’s BlenderBot 3 Chatbot Demo Made Offensive Antisemitic Comments, Acknowledged by Developers as Occasional Errors
08/17/2022: Incident 314: Stable Diffusion Abused by 4chan Users to Deepfake Celebrity Porn
08/21/2022: Incident 303: Google’s Automated Child Abuse Detection Wrongfully Flagged a Parent’s Naked Photo of His Child
08/25/2022: Incident 313: BlenderBot 3 Cited Dutch Politician as a Terrorist
How to find this collection in the database:
Go to the “Table View” in the menu of the AIID and type 2022-07 for incidents occurring in July and 2022-08 for incidents occurring in August.
New Incidents in the Database
A digest of all AI Incidents added to the database in July/August.
The following incidents are new to the AIID, but they are submissions of incidents that occurred before the last two months.
AI physical injury or risk of injury to humans
Incident 241: Chess Robot Broke Child's Finger in Russia
Incident 242: Manufacturing Robot Failure Caused Factory Worker's Death in India
Incident 252: Remotely Operated Taser Drones Proposed by Taser Manufacturer as Defense for School Shootings in the US
Incident 261: Robot Deployed by Animal Shelter to Patrol Sidewalks outside Its Office, Warding off Homeless People in San Francisco
Incident 279: TikTok’s “For You” Algorithm Exposed Young Users to Pro Disorder Content
Incident 281: YouTube's Algorithms Failed to Remove Violating Content Related to Suicide and Self
Incident 286: TikTok’s Recommendation System Alleged in a Lawsuit to Have Pushed and Incentivized Two Young Girls in Participating in the “Blackout” Challenge, Resulting in Their Deaths
Incident 290: False Negatives for Water Quality Beach Closures
Autonomous vehicle issues
Incident 253: Cruise's Self Cars Allegedly Lost Connection to Their Server, Causing Traffic Blockages in San Francisco
Incident 271: Tesla Model 3 Sedan on Autopilot Killed Motorcyclist in a Rear Collision in Utah
Incident 289: Starship Delivery Robot Scuffed Bumper of a Resident’s Car in Texas, Allegedly Refusing to Release Footage of the Accident
Incident 291: Tesla Allegedly Misled Customers about Autopilot and FSD Capabilities
Incident 292: Apple’s AVs Reportedly Struggled to Navigate Streets in Silicon Valley Test Drives
Incident 293: Cruise’s Self Car Involved in a Multiple Collision at an San Francisco Intersection
Incident 294: Tesla Autopilot Allegedly Malfunctioned in a Non Collision in Greece
Incident 297: EasyMile Self Shuttle Unexpectedly Stopped Mid, Injuring a Passenger
Incident 304: Tesla on FSD Reportedly Drove into the Wrong Lane in California
Incident 306: Tesla on Autopilot TACC Crashed into Van on European Highway
Incident 319: Tesla on Autopilot Fatally Crashed into Parked Fire Truck in Indiana
Incident 320: Tesla on Autopilot Collided with Parked Fire Truck on California Freeway
Incident 321: Tesla Model X on Autopilot Crashed into California Highway Barrier, Killing Driver
Incident 322: Tesla Model 3 Crashed into Police Patrol Car on Connecticut Highway
Incident 323: Tesla on Autopilot Crashed into Parked Police Car in California
Policing practices using AI
Incident 244: Colorado Police’s Automated License Plate Reader (ALPR) Matched a Family’s Minivan’s Plate to That of a Stolen Vehicle Allegedly, Resulting in Detainment at Gunpoint
Incident 245: Unverified Misreading by Automated Plate Reader Led to Traffic Stop and Restraint of an Innocent Person at Gunpoint in California
Incident 246: Misreading of an Automated License Plate Reader (ALPR) Unverified by Police, Resulting in Traffic Stop in Missouri
Incident 248: Automated License Plate Camera Notified Police about a Previously Stolen Rental Car that was Returned, Causing an Innocent Person to be Detained at Gunpoint in California
Incident 255: Gunshot Detection Audio Picked up by ShotSpotter’s Algorithms Previously Admitted as Evidence of Conviction in a Murder Case in Chicago Now Dismissed due to Reports of Unreliability
Incident 256: DUI Arrest Case in Chicago Alleged in a Lawsuit to Have Based Solely on an Alert by ShotSpotter, Citing Concerns of Unreliability
Incident 257: Police Departments Reportedly Deployed Gunshot Detection Sensors Disproportionately in Black and Brown Neighborhoods
Incident 260: US Department of Homeland Security (DHS)’s Opaque Immigration Software Criticized by Advocacy Groups for Allegedly Relying on Poor Data and Targeting Immigrants Via Sensitive Information
Incident 264: AI Vehicle Speed Estimation App Denounced by UK Drivers as Surveillance Technology
Incident 268: Permanent Removal of Social Media Content via Automated Tools Allegedly Prevented Investigative Efforts
Incident 288: New Jersey Police Misidentified an Innocent Black Man via Facial Recognition, Resulting in Wrongful Arrest and Alleged Violation of Civil Rights
Incident 295: Wrongful Attempted Arrest for Apple Store Thefts Due to NYPD’s Facial Misidentification
Incident 309: UK Police’s FRT Trial Performed Poorly at Notting Hill Carnival
Incident 310: High False Positive Rate by SWP's Facial Recognition Use at Champion's League Final
AI bias
Incident 259: YouTuber Built, Made Publicly Available, and Released Model Trained on Toxic 4chan Posts as Prank
Incident 262: DALL Mini Reportedly Reinforced or Exacerbated Societal Biases in Its Outputs as Gender and Racial Stereotypes
Incident 265: Black Delivery Driver Allegedly Discriminated by Uber Eats for Excessive Facial Photo Verification Checks and Dismissed Based on False Facial Recognition Results
Incident 275: Facebook’s Content Moderation Algorithm Incorrectly Banned Users for a Photo of Aboriginal Men in Chains as Historical Evidence of Slavery
Incident 278: Meta’s BlenderBot 3 Chatbot Demo Made Offensive Antisemitic Comments
Incident 280: Coffee Meets Bagel’s Algorithm Reported by Users Disproportionately Showing Them Matches of Their Own Ethnicities Despite Selecting “No Preference”
Incident 300: TikTok's "For You" Algorithm Allegedly Abused by Online Personality to Promote Anti Hate
Incident 312: Startup's Accent Translation AI Denounced as Reinforcing Racial Bias
Facial recognition issues
Incident 254: Google’s Face Grouping Feature Allegedly Collected and Analyzed Users’ Facial Structure without Consent or Notice, in Direct Violation of Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act
Incident 258: Australian Retailers Reported to Have Captured Face Prints of Their Customers without Consent, Potentially in Violation of Australian Privacy Act
Incident 267: Clearview AI’s Algorithm Built on Photos Scraped from Social Media Profiles without Consent
Incident 273: FaceApp Detected Different Genders for Similar User Photos with Slight Variation in Eyebrow Thickness
Incident 276: Local South Korean Government’s Use of CCTV Footage Analysis via Facial Recognition to Track COVID Cases Raised Concerns about Privacy, Retention, and Potential Misuse
Incident 298: Student Facial Recognition App Raised Ethical Concerns
Incident 307: iPhone Face ID Failed to Recognize Users’ Morning Faces
Incident 315: Facial Recognition Service Abused to Target Russian Porn Actresses
Harmful algorithms
Incident 250: Dutch City Court Defended Home Value Generated by Black Algorithm
Incident 251: Amazon Allegedly Tweaked Search Algorithm to Boost Its Own Products
Incident 263: YouTube’s Content Recommendation Systems Implicated in One User’s Extreme Political Radicalization
Incident 270: Apple Tweaked App Store Ranking Algorithms, Allegedly Resulted in Demotion of Local Apps in China
Incident 272: Grab Tweaked Matchmaking Algorithm, Providing Preferential Treatment to Drivers Registered with Affiliated Car Rental Service
Incident 274: Virginia Courts’ Use of Algorithmic Nonviolent Risk Assessment Failed to Result in Lower Incarceration Rates or Sentencing and Neither Increased or Decreased Historical Racial Bias in Sentencing
Incident 282: Facebook’s Algorithm Mistook an Advertisement of Onions as Sexual Suggestive Content
Incident 296: Twitter Recommender System Amplified Right Tweets
Incident 302: Students Allegedly Wrongfully Accused of Cheating via Medical School's Internal Software
Incident 305: YouTube’s Recommendation Algorithm Allegedly Promoted Climate Misinformation Content
Incident 316: Facebook Ad Algorithm Allegedly Missed Fraudulent Ads via Simple URL Checks
Incident 318: Facebook Recommended Military Gear Ads Despite Pause on Weapons Accessories Ads
Censorship Issues
Incident 283: Facebook’s Automated Content Moderation Tool Flagged a Post Containing Parts of the Declaration of Independence as Hate Speech by Mistake
Incident 284: Facebook’s Removal of Content Containing Artworks and Their Advertisements That Featured Nudity via Automated and Human Moderation Denounced as Censorship
Incident 303: Google’s Automated Child Abuse Detection Wrongfully Flagged a Parent’s Naked Photo of His Child
Incident 311: YouTube Auto Mistakenly Banned Women of Sex Tech Conference
Incident 317: Bug in Facebook’s Anti Filter Allegedly Blocked Legitimate Posts about COVID
Deepfake Issues
Incident 299: Japanese Porn Depixelated by Man using Deepfake
Incident 314: Stable Diffusion Abused by 4chan Users to Deepfake Celebrity Porn
Other Incidents
Incident 243: Bots Allegedly Made up Roughly Half of Twitter Accounts in Discussions Surrounding COVID Related Issues
Incident 249: Government Deployed Extreme Surveillance Technologies to Monitor and Target Muslim Minorities in Xinjiang
Incident 266: AI Partners Created by Chatbot App Replika Abused by Its Users
Incident 277: Voices Created via Publicly Available AI Generation App 15.ai Stolen and Resold as NFT without Acknowledgement
Incident 285: Google Lens’s Camera Translation Feature Provided an Offensive Mistranslation of a Book Title in Korean
Incident 287: OpenAI’s GPT Reported by Healthcare Company as Unviable in Medical Tasks Due to Its Erratic and General Nature
Incident 308: Atlas Robot Fell off Stage at Conference
Incident 313: BlenderBot 3 Cited Dutch Politician as a Terrorist
How to find this collection in the database:
Go to the “Table View” in the menu of the AIID and view Incident IDs after #241.
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