We should have seen this coming. Maybe you did.
Pikesville High School’s athletic director Dazhon Darien was arrested yesterday after an investigation revealed that he used AI technology to created the fake audio clip above of the school’s principal, Eric Eiswert, ranting about black students and Jews. Darien, who is black, has been charged with disrupting school activities: of course the audio clip using the principal’s voice “went viral”and Eiswert, who is white, was widely condemned by the Baltimore County community. The school had to add police personnel for security and additional counselors. Here is a typical reaction to the clip:
Darien has also charged been charged with theft, retaliating against a witness and stalking. Good.
Because this has seldom been done before, there are no laws that address it specifically. Creative bad acts involving new technology can and ought to be anticipated, but the Barn Door Fallacy is in play: legislators seldom pass laws defining new crimes until there is a sufficiently high-profile example sparking public and media pressure to demand action. Meanwhile, much of the professional and personal damage inflicted on Eric Eiswert cannot be repaired.
NPR, I assume, is preparing a story explaining that while what Darein did was sort of wrong, it was in many ways an understandable response to systemic racism in the U.S. educational system.
It has been known for a while that what Darien did was technologically possible: five years ago, in the Robert King horror series “Evil,” the protagonist used a similarly faked recording to disqualify an expert witness who was, you guessed it, evil. She played it for a judge, and this was okay, see, because, again, her victim was “evil.”
I’ll be eagerly waiting to see if Eiswert is charged with committing a hate crime. Maryland has one.
Talk about evil…
[Note: …and speaking of AI, WordPress’s bot tells me that this post should be tagged “Panama.”]
Ethics Alarms 
Must be a deepfake NPR report – it’s actually objective
https://www.npr.org/2024/04/26/1247237175/baltimore-ai-generated-racist-audio-crime
Ha!
I saw a deep fake video several years ago with Barack Obama saying things he would never say. At that time, the tools necessary for creating this type of fake video and audio were costly and required some skills to use.
Today the technology had evolved such that even a novice can easily create a deep fake. It isn’t likely that a high school athletic director has a deep understanding of AI. You don’t need much to do a deep fake audio; just capture or record someone’s outgoing message from their voice mail!!! Of course, you can just record someone with your smart phone now or the principal could have videos on YouTube or even on the high school website.
I’ve read somewhere that these deep fakes have even been used for revenge porn. I think SJ wrote a piece about it some time back.
Yes, AI generated “deep” fakes are definitely going to be an issue going forward.
EA had a post about that too, last month I think.
Oh, a post about revenge porn or are you speaking of the Susanna Gibson post? Doesn’t matter, I read all your posts but I think my memory is starting to falter just a bit.
Re: the headline. I’ve long considered the Biden presidency the first animatronic president used during his term. They just accelerated the timeline, moved the animatron into the present.
SloJo’s puppeteers would certainly be better off using deep fake videos, whenever possible, instead of live appearances or recordings. That would eliminate the bumbling incoherence and stories about cannibals. (Jack’s point in the title, I assume.)
No! My point is that a fake recording of Donald Trump proving he’s a racist or that he plans on executing his enemies or declaring martial law would have fit Joe’s current campaign strategy, but now the jig is up. They may try it anyway…
Wim’s thought parallels mine. But the route you suggest is probably more on point. Just nastier. And more on point. I bet Marc Elias has already had those tapes generated (and I’m sure they were paid for and recorded as “legal expenses”).
OK, that works, too 😉
Why did the athletic director (aka gym teacher) do this? Oh. This is why: ”Darien’s alleged scheme began in January in an attempt to retaliate against Eiswert, investigators wrote in the charging documents provided to NPR. The two men were at odds with each other over Darien’s ‘work performance challenges,’ police wrote.”
And,
“Eiswert launched an investigation into Darien in December 2023 over the potential mishandling of $1,916 in school funds. The money was paid to a person hired as an assistant girl’s soccer coach, but the person never did the job, according to police.”
“Further, Eiswert had reprimanded Darien for firing a coach without his approval. Eiswert had told Darien that his contract was possibly ”not being renewed next semester,'”‘ according to the arrest warrant.”
jvb
Why did he try to board a flight to Houston? Don’t we have enough problems here, with roads crumbling, the county judge (read that as the county CEO0 indicted for awarding an $11 million no-bid COVID outreach contract to her friend (who, incidentally lived in a one-room apartment and had no staff), a city on the verge of financial disaster after 6 years of graft from the outgoing bozo mayor and his cronies, and commissioner’s court run by a monumentally corrupt individual and, to top it all off, Rep. Sheila Jackson-Lee running around saying mind-numbingly stupid things? Now, we have this idiot trying to come here, too? Dear God! Make it stop!
jvb
They don’t catch the smart ones. If Darien hadn’t packed a gun into his baggage, he would be in Houston.
The news item indicates Darien confessed. Had he made it to Houston, I doubt he would’ve been extradited back to Baldmur.
His choice to pack a gun was not wise. Since I didn’t see any federal charges, I presume the gun was in his checked luggage and that the airport & airline was aware of this. Even though perfectly legal, you get much more intense screening from the TSA than without a firearm.
Shame on the supposed educators who spread the recording.
’Police said the audio clip was originally sent to a friend group of three teachers. One of the educators admitted to police she sent the clip to news outlets and a student who she knew would spread the clip.
An investigation into the other teachers involved continues.’
For shame. Teachers should be better than this.