An AI-powered news site called Jewish Onliner published an article falsely claiming Yale scholar Helyeh Doutaghi was a member of a terrorist organization, leading to her immediate suspension and campus ban within three days.
In March 2025, Jewish Onliner, a news site that describes itself as 'empowered by A.I. capabilities' and uses AI for research, fact-checking and content creation, published an article on March 2 claiming that Yale Law School scholar Helyeh Doutaghi was a member of Samidoun, a pro-Palestinian group designated by the U.S. Treasury Department as a terrorist organization. The site does not identify any human reporters and operates with anonymous staff. The article cited postings about Doutaghi's appearances at Samidoun-sponsored events but incorrectly labeled her as a member of the organization. Within 24 hours of publication, Doutaghi began receiving harassing and threatening messages online. Three days after the article's publication on March 5, Yale placed Doutaghi on administrative leave and barred her from campus, citing 'serious allegations regarding activities with entities subject to U.S. sanctions.' Doutaghi's lawyer stated she is not a member of Samidoun and questioned the reliability of the AI-powered platform's reporting. The incident occurred amid broader political pressure on universities, with Columbia losing $400 million in federal funding and 60 schools including Yale facing potential funding cuts over antisemitism allegations.
Domain classification, causal taxonomy, severity scores, and national security assessments were LLM-classified and may contain errors.
AI systems that inadvertently generate or spread incorrect or deceptive information, which can lead to inaccurate beliefs in users and undermine their autonomy. Humans that make decisions based on false beliefs can experience physical, emotional or material harms
AI system
Due to a decision or action made by an AI system
Unintentional
Due to an unexpected outcome from pursuing a goal
Post-deployment
Occurring after the AI model has been trained and deployed