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AI incidents in government & public administration
Headlights has documented 32 AI incidents in government & public administration, 14% of the library, from 2016 to 2026. The behaviours most often in the record are rules-behaviour gap (10), judgement surrendered (4), overconfidence (4). Most are from Australia (7), the United States (7), Netherlands (4).
32 incidents, newest first
HD-INC-235Brazil's Audit Court Found More Than One in Ten Automatic Benefit Refusals Were WrongBrazil · 2025HD-INC-234Ireland's Regulator Found No Lawful Basis for Public Services Card Facial MatchingIreland · 2025HD-INC-228Japan Postponed an AI Tool for Child Abuse Custody Decisions After Doubtful Test ScoresJapan · 2026HD-INC-219UK Inspectors Found AI Used Inappropriately in Asylum Decision Letters and InterviewsUnited Kingdom · 2026HD-INC-205The DWP Kept a Fraud Model That Referred Older and Non-UK Claimants More OftenUnited Kingdom · 2025HD-INC-204AI-Generated Intelligence Report Nearly Led to a US Military Boarding, CNN ReportedUnited States · 2026HD-INC-201Home Affairs' System Ended a Bridging Visa Unlawfully, the Commonwealth Ombudsman FoundAustralia · 2023HD-INC-198Spain's Supreme Court Ordered Release of the Code That Checks Eligibility for Energy AidSpain · 2025HD-INC-180South Africa withdrew its draft national AI policy after fictitious references were found in its evidence baseSouth Africa · 2026HD-INC-171South Africa's social grant agency read every deposit into an applicant's bank account as income, and the High Court found its checks against government databases unreasonable and unfairSouth Africa · 2025HD-INC-157ProPublica reported that the tool used to pick Veterans Affairs contracts for cancellation was shown only the first 10,000 characters of each contract, and recorded around 1,100 of them as worth 34 million dollars eachUnited States · 2025HD-INC-156Greece's data protection authority fined the Migration Ministry 175,000 euros after finding that the impact assessments for the camera, behavioural analytics, drone and fingerprint systems at five island reception centres were substantially incompleteGreece · 2024HD-INC-153For five years the UK Home Office graded visa applicants red, amber or green using data that included nationality, and it suspended the tool in response to a judicial reviewUnited Kingdom · 2020HD-INC-129A Pennsylvania county used an algorithm to score families reported for child neglect, drawing on data like disability and welfare use, and an Associated Press investigation and a US civil rights inquiry raised concerns it hardened biasUnited States · 2022HD-INC-127Amnesty International reported that Denmark's automated welfare fraud system ran up to sixty algorithms over millions of people, using data like citizenship to flag migrants, disabled and low-income claimants for investigationDenmark · 2024HD-INC-116For over a decade the Post Office prosecuted the people who run its branches for money that its Horizon accounting system had invented, and a public inquiry found its own bosses knew the system could be wrongUnited Kingdom · 2025HD-INC-100Telangana used an algorithm to cancel millions of food-ration cards, and India's Supreme Court ordered all cancelled cards to be re-verifiedIndia · 2022HD-INC-097Australia's Merit Protection Commissioner overturned most decisions from an AI-assisted recruitment round, and a union told Parliament experienced staff were being screened outAustralia · 2022HD-INC-095Dutch reporters found that most Dutch responses to an EU tobacco consultation appeared to come from a Philip Morris AI tool, and the company denied steering themNetherlands · 2026HD-INC-077Revenue NSW took money from fine defaulters' bank accounts by automation for years, and the Ombudsman found the process contrary to lawAustralia · 2024HD-INC-076Australia changed the law so a human had to decide before a job seeker's payment was cancelled, and the automated system kept cancelling anywayAustralia · 2025HD-INC-074Haryana's family-ID system marked living pensioners as dead, and the chief minister told the assembly that 70 percent of old-age pension stoppages based on its data were wrongfulIndia · 2023HD-INC-072The Dutch student-finance agency picked fraud targets with a risk profile for a decade, and official investigations found it indirectly discriminated against students with migration backgroundsNetherlands · 2024HD-INC-070US immigration authorities leaned on machine translation for asylum cases, and errors as small as a pronoun reportedly led to rejectionsUnited States · 2023HD-INC-067A journalist cloned his own voice with AI and walked through the voiceprint security on Centrelink's phone self-service lineAustralia · 2023HD-INC-066A child protection worker used ChatGPT on a Children's Court report, and the regulator found it disclosed a child's details and understated riskAustralia · 2024HD-INC-059A Dutch court struck down SyRI, a secret welfare-fraud profiling system aimed at poor neighbourhoods, as a violation of human rightsNetherlands · 2020HD-INC-053Michigan let an algorithm decide unemployment fraud with no human looking, and a state review later found about 93% of its accusations wrongUnited States · 2017HD-INC-047A political consultant paid a magician to clone the president's voice, and thousands of New Hampshire voters got a call from 'Biden' telling them to stay homeUnited States · 2024HD-INC-042The Dutch tax office used a risk algorithm that flagged families by nationality, and wrongly branded tens of thousands as benefit fraudstersNetherlands · 2021HD-INC-009Robodebt, Australia's automated welfare-debt scheme raised $1.76 billion in unlawful debts against 443,000 peopleAustralia · 2016HD-INC-006New York City's Business Chatbot Told Owners They Could Break the Law, and Stayed OnlineUnited States · 2023
Related topics
- Rules-behaviour gap 10
- Judgement surrendered 4
- Overconfidence 4
- Automation bias 3
- Australia 7
- United States 7
- Netherlands 4
Cite this page: Harris, E. (2026). AI incidents in government & public administration. Headlights. https://useheadlights.com/topics/industry/government/