Description: In August 2024, ChatGPT is reported to have falsely claimed that Norwegian citizen Arve Hjalmar Holmen had killed his two sons and been sentenced to 21 years in prison. The fabricated response allegedly included specific details about the supposed crime, despite Holmen never being accused or convicted of any offense. The incident prompted a GDPR complaint for defamation and inaccurate personal data.
Editor Notes: Timeline notes: The incident date of 08/15/2024 is an approximation; the incident is reported to have occurred sometime in August 2024. Reporting on this incident arose on 03/20/2025.
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The OECD AI Incidents and Hazards Monitor (AIM) automatically collects and classifies AI-related incidents and hazards in real time from reputable news sources worldwide.
Entities
View all entitiesAlleged: OpenAI and ChatGPT developed and deployed an AI system, which harmed Arve Hjalmar Holmen.
Alleged implicated AI system: ChatGPT
Incident Stats
Incident ID
998
Report Count
3
Incident Date
2024-08-15
Editors
Daniel Atherton
Incident Reports
Reports Timeline
A Norwegian man has filed a complaint after ChatGPT falsely told him he had killed two of his sons and been jailed for 21 years.
Arve Hjalmar Holmen has contacted the Norwegian Data Protection Authority and demanded the chatbot's maker, Ope…
A Norwegian man has filed a complaint after artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot ChatGPT falsely claimed he was convicted of murdering two of his children.
Arve Hjalmar Holmen was given the false information after he used ChatGPT to ask if…
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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