Tennessee Grandmother Jailed 6 Months on AI Error

A Tennessee grandmother endured nearly six months in jail after artificial intelligence facial recognition software erroneously identified her as a suspect in a North Dakota bank fraud scheme, leading to her arrest in July 2024 and the eventual dismissal of charges on Christmas Eve that year.

Angela Lipps, 50, a mother of three and grandmother of five who had never visited North Dakota, was taken into custody at her home in north-central Tennessee while babysitting four young children. U.S. Marshals arrived with guns drawn, booking her as a fugitive from justice. She remained in a Tennessee county jail without bail for 108 days, awaiting extradition. Authorities in Fargo, North Dakota, did not transport her until late October 2024, when she made her first court appearance the following day.

The charges stemmed from a series of bank fraud incidents in April and May 2024, in which a woman allegedly used a forged U.S. Army military identification to withdraw tens of thousands of dollars from multiple banks in the Fargo-Moorhead area. Fargo police detectives reviewed surveillance video and employed facial recognition software, which matched Lipps based on facial features, body type,...