About
Why this exists
AI Impact Registry collects reports of possible adverse effects that people attribute to AI tools - from chatbots and social media algorithms to deepfakes, AI surveillance, automated decision-making, and job displacement - so that patterns can be studied rather than guessed at. An effect may feel helpful at first and only prove harmful later, which is why we ask for experiences, not proof.
The problem
When a medicine causes an unexpected effect, there is somewhere to report it, and those reports accumulate into evidence. When an AI tool or system affects someone - a chatbot, a social media algorithm, an automated decision - leaving them more anxious, more isolated, worse about their body, or unable to stop - there is usually nowhere for that to go. It stays a private experience, and nothing aggregates.
That absence is the gap this platform addresses. Not by treating digital tools as if they were drugs, but by taking seriously that the effects linked to their use are real, reportable, and becomes legible once enough people describe it.
What we do with reports
Reports are reviewed as part of ongoing monitoring for patterns across tools and platforms. A single report is not a diagnosis and is never treated as one - it is one account among many. What makes it valuable is the aggregate: recurring descriptions, from unrelated people, of the same kind of effect around the same kind of product.
We collect as little as possible to do that. Your privacy is protected by default: reporting needs no account and asks for no name. Contact details are optional and only used if you invite follow-up.
What this is not
This is not a crisis or emergency service, and reports are not read in real time. If you or someone else is in immediate danger, contact your local emergency number. In the Netherlands you can also reach 113 Zelfmoordpreventie (call 113 or 0800-0113).
It is also not a support service, a complaints channel to the companies involved, or a route to individual advice. Reporting here will not get you a clinical opinion about your own situation - if you need one, speak to a health professional.
Who is behind this
This platform is developed by researchers at Amsterdam UMC and the University of Amsterdam. It is part of the research priority area Shaping Interfaces Between Science and the Public at the University of Amsterdam, which brings together research on how science and the public connect.
Questions
The FAQ answers what to report, how your privacy is protected, and what happens next. For anything else, contact us - though please don’t use it for anything urgent.