Sichuan Province Beset by Numerous Fabricated AI-Generated Reports of Disasters and Crises

July 23, 2024

In the Sichuan Province, AI tools were misused to generate and disseminate false reports about disasters and crises, such as landslides, earthquakes, standoffs, accidents, and health-related incidents. These fabricated stories caused public alarm, confusion, and strained local authorities. The perpetrators aimed for social media engagement and financial gain. Authorities in Sichuan eventually imposed administrative penalties on the offenders.

This incident underscores the need for robust AI governance to prevent such occurrences and ensure safe and secure AI practices. Learn more about how you can contribute to Project Cerebellum by mapping, measuring, or managing AI incidents through our TAIM platform at JOIN US.

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Alleged deployer
zhu-mou, zhou-moumou, zhang-moumou, yang-moumou, wang-mou, shang-moumou, luo-moumou, liu-mou, ji-moumou, chen-mou
Alleged developer
unknown-deepfake-technology-developers, unknown-ai-developers
Alleged harmed parties
sichuan-general-public, sichuan-authorities

Source

Data from the AI Incident Database (AIID). Cite this incident: https://incidentdatabase.ai/cite/836

Data source

Incident data is from the AI Incident Database (AIID).

When citing the database as a whole, please use:

McGregor, S. (2021) Preventing Repeated Real World AI Failures by Cataloging Incidents: The AI Incident Database. In Proceedings of the Thirty-Third Annual Conference on Innovative Applications of Artificial Intelligence (IAAI-21). Virtual Conference.

Pre-print on arXiv · Database snapshots & citation guide

We use weekly snapshots of the AIID for stable reference. For the official suggested citation of a specific incident, use the “Cite this incident” link on each incident page.