Business group: AI-generated freedom-of-information requests may be pranks

Dansk Industri (the Confederation of Danish Industry) believes a wave of freedom-of-information requests that appear to have been generated with artificial intelligence could be pranks or harassment. Jeppe Engell, a chief consultant and cybersecurity expert at the organisation, gave the assessment to the news agency Ritzau on 7 November 2026.

Both waterworks and vocational schools have recently received a large number of these requests. The requests are described as apparently AI-generated, though the available text does not say how many arrived, who sent them, or which specific institutions were hit.

Engell stressed that calling the requests possible pranks does not mean they should not be taken seriously. His comment, as far as it can be read, separates the likely motive, which he sees as mischief or harassment rather than a genuine search for information, from the need to treat the situation with care.

The text available ends partway through his remarks, so his full reasoning and any recommendations he made are not known.

The case matters because freedom-of-information requests oblige public bodies and similar institutions to spend time and resources answering them. Automated tools that can produce requests in bulk could burden organisations such as small utilities and schools, which may have limited administrative capacity, and Dansk Industri's cybersecurity expert is treating the episode as a security-related issue.