In short: Baltimore police arrested a highschool athletic director after he allegedly created an AI-generated recording of the varsity’s principal making racist and antisemitic remarks and circulating it on social media. He faces prices, together with theft, stalking, disruption of faculty operations, and retaliation towards a witness.
In keeping with NBC Information, police arrested former Pikesville Excessive Faculty athletic director Dazhon Darien as he was making an attempt to board a flight to Houston, Texas. Transportation Safety Administration officers detained Darien over the packaging of a declared firearm. When native police arrived, they arrested him after operating a background examine and discovering an impressive arrest warrant.
Darien allegedly posted the now-deleted audio clip to a number of unnamed social media websites in January. The first voice within the audio clip appeared like Pikesville Excessive’s principal, Eric Eiswert. It gave the impression to be a dialog with an unnamed particular person.
The police report notes that in the midst of the dialog, Eiswert says that African-American college students could not “take a look at their method out of a paper bag.” He additionally made slanderous feedback about folks within the Jewish group and two college staff who “ought to by no means have been employed.”
Eiswert was quickly relieved of his duties after the audio went public. He acquired excessive volumes of venomous messages on-line, and the varsity acquired numerous cellphone calls from outraged group members.
Eiswert advised police that he believed Darien fabricated the audio utilizing AI in retaliation for his contract not being renewed as a consequence of poor work efficiency, alleged mishandling of faculty funds, and for terminating a long-time coach with out approval in 2023. He additionally mentioned he believed Darien was tech-savvy and educated about utilizing AI instruments.
“[Darien was] technologically savvy and believed he was accustomed to AI,” Eiswert advised police.
Detectives discovered proof that Darien had accessed the varsity’s community a number of instances in December and January to seek for “OpenAI instruments.” Investigators subsequently linked him to a number of paid OpenAI accounts.
The FBI contracted a college professor and forensics professional to research the recording. He discovered that the file contained traces of AI-generated content material. The architect of the recording additionally added a background monitor of ambient noises to make it sound extra pure. A second evaluation by the College of California, Berkley, concluded that somebody had manipulated the audio file.
Picture credit score: Shuttersv