Audio clip of US principal using offensive language that sparked outrage, turns out to be deepfake
A case out of the United States is raising alarm about artificial intelligence (AI)-generated content yet again. This time it was a fabricated audio clip of a high school principal in the US state of Maryland which went viral and sparked outrage and even to some death threats amid allegations of racism and antisemitism.
What happened?
The fabricated audio of Pikesville high school principal Eric Eiswert where he can be heard making racist and antisemitic comments went viral back in January. The clip sparked outrage and led him to be placed on administrative leave pending an investigation.
Meanwhile, the administrators of the school were left dealing with a flood of angry calls and threats of violence. One user on X told Eiswert that the “world would be a better place if you were on the other side of the dirt,” according to a police report.
In the clip which was created using AI, Eiswert was purportedly heard ranting against Jews and “ungrateful Black kids”. At the time,the high school principal maintained that it wasn’t his voice on the recording and believed that it was a deepfake, and turns out he was right.
“You need one image to put a person into a video, you need 30 seconds of audio to clone somebody’s voice,” Hany Farid, a digital forensics expert at the University of California, Berkeley, told AFP.
He added, “There’s almost nothing you can do unless you hide under a rock.”
Who was the perpetrator?
It was not until late last month that the Baltimore County Police Department charged a disgruntled staff member at the school in connection with the clip, which had been boosted by a popular Instagram account.
The incident garnered attention across the US after activist DeRay McKesson shared the clip and called for Eiswert to be fired. However, after the charges surfaced, he reportedly conceded he had been fooled.
The man identified as the school’s athletic director, Dazhon Darien, 31, was arrested over the clip.
In a press conference, Scott Shellenberger, the Baltimore County state’s attorney said that the incident at Pikesville highlighted the need to “bring the law up to date with the technology.”
Shellenberger’s office is prosecuting Darien on four charges, including disturbing school activities.
Notably, the 31-year-old’s arrest took place as the investigators were able to trace the audio clip back to him after connecting an email address that was initially used to distribute it.
The police believe that the alleged smear job came after Eiswert in December, opened an investigation against Darien to find out if he authorised an illegitimate payment to a coach who was also his roommate.
The audio “contained traces of AI-generated content with human editing after the fact,” said a professor from the University of Colorado who analysed the audio for the police.
The police, who also consulted Farid said that he found that the clip was “manipulated, and multiple recordings were spliced together using unknown software.”
According to the charging documents, Darien made searches for AI tools via the school’s network before the audio came out.
(With inputs from agencies)