Caitlin Karall, Dailymail.com US Political Reporter
21:31 February 25, 2024, updated 22:05 February 25, 2024
- Steve Cramer, a political consultant to Congressman Dean Phillips, admitted to using AI to request robocalls impersonating President Joe Biden's voice.
- Illusionist Paul Carpenter reveals that Kramer paid him to create deepfakes
- The caller told Democrats there was no need to vote for Biden in the New Hampshire primary.
A political consultant to Joe Biden's leading front-runner, Rep. Dean Phillips, has admitted to being involved in fake robocalls using AI to impersonate the president.
Steve Cramer said he commissioned a robocall that used artificial intelligence (AI) to impersonate President Biden's voice, NBC News reported on Sunday.
His admission comes as New Orleans street magician and illusionist Paul Carpenter created a deepfake of Biden's voice for robocalls by Democratic political consultants telling supporters they don't need to vote in the New Hampshire primary. This was done after he claimed to have paid $150 to create the .
Carpenter used AI software to mimic Biden's voice in the message.
Kramer told NBC News he regrets commissioning the call and said more steps need to be taken to prevent something like this from happening in the future.
“With an investment of just $500, anyone can recreate my purposeful call,” Kramer said. “Immediate action is required across all regulatory bodies and platforms.”
The call triggered several investigations by law enforcement and sparked protests from watchdogs and election officials.
Campaign finance records show that Rep. Phillips (D-Minn.) paid Mr. Cramer more than $250,000 around the time the robocalls were discovered in January. But Mr. Kramer would not tell NBC News whether he was instructed by his customers to make the calls.
Mr. Phillips is still pursuing a long-term primary campaign against Mr. Biden, hoping for an upset in New Hampshire last month.
“On the evening of Sunday, January 20th, two days before the New Hampshire primary, we sent automated calls to 5,000 people most likely to vote Democratic,” Cramer said in explaining the robocall purchase. .
“An automated version of President Joe Biden's voice was created using easy-to-use online technology,” Cramer said in a statement.
Mr. Phillips has denounced the robocalls and says his campaign had no knowledge of Mr. Kramer's involvement. They said if they had known, they would have been fired on the spot.