Description: Santa Ana, California, police issued a public warning and searched for a reportedly sighted Gaboon viper after a resident provided an image as evidence. Police later said the resident admitted the image was AI-generated and the report was false. Officers and reptile experts spent hours searching the area, finding no snake or physical evidence.
Entities
View all entitiesAlleged: Synthetic media generation technology developers , Synthetic image generation technology developers and xAI developed an AI system deployed by Joel Ciprian , Synthetic media creators , Information manipulation actors and Information manipulation actors in the United States, which harmed Santa Ana residents , General public , General public of California , Epistemic integrity , Emergency responders , Santa Ana Police Department and Law enforcement.
Alleged implicated AI systems: Synthetic media generation technology , Synthetic image generation technology and Grok
Incident Stats
Incident ID
1718
Report Count
1
Incident Date
2026-09-28
Editors
Daniel Atherton
Incident Reports
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The message from the police in Southern California was alarming: a deadly viper had been spotted in a tree.
The follow-up was a relief and a little bit funny, but alarming in a different way: The image that was offered as evidence of this r…
Variants
A "variant" is an AI incident similar to a known case—it has the same causes, harms, and AI system. Instead of listing it separately, we group it under the first reported incident. Unlike other incidents, variants do not need to have been reported outside the AIID. Learn more from the research paper.
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