1. Baltimore high school athletic director arrested for creating fake AI audio clip of principal making racist comments which led to backlash and investigation.
2. Experts determine audio clip was AI fake due to inconsistencies, former athletic director allegedly created clip in retaliation for financial investigation, arrested and charged with multiple crimes.
3. Lack of legislation on using AI to fake someone’s voice highlights unpreparedness of society and authorities to handle generative AI technology, best defense may be to assume audio and video are fake until proven otherwise.
A Baltimore high school athletic director was arrested for using AI to create a fake audio clip of the school’s principal, Eric Eiswert, making racist and antisemitic comments. The authenticity of the audio was disputed at the time, but the widely shared clip led to Eiswert temporarily losing his job. Experts have now confirmed that the audio was indeed an AI fake, based on various inconsistencies in the recording. It is alleged that Dazhon Darien, the former athletic director, created the fake audio in retaliation for an investigation into his misuse of school funds. Darien has been arrested and charged with various offenses related to the incident.
There are currently no laws specifically addressing the use of AI to create fake audio or video, highlighting a lack of preparedness in society and authorities for dealing with such issues. Bills like the No Fakes Act and the No AI Fraud Act have been proposed in Congress but have not been passed. The fact that it took weeks for an expert to confirm the audio was fake demonstrates the challenges in identifying and addressing fake content created using AI technology. The ease with which such fakes can be generated raises concerns about the potential actions of more technically competent bad actors in the future. As a result, it may be necessary to adopt a stance of assuming content is fake until it has been verified as genuine.