A fabricated audio clip of a US high school principal has sparked outrage, leaving principals grappling with allegations of racism and anti-Semitism in the case and sparking fresh alarm over AI manipulation.
Police have accused disgruntled faculty at a Maryland school of recordings that surfaced in January of Principal Eric Eiswart allegedly ranting against Jews and “ungrateful black kids.” ) was indicted for creating it using artificial intelligence.
The video, in which Pikesville High School administrators fielded a flood of angry calls and threats, highlights how easily widely available AI and editing tools can be exploited to impersonate celebrities or ordinary citizens.
In a year of major elections around the world, including the United States, this episode also illustrates the very real dangers of deepfakes as laws continue to catch up.
“It takes one image to capture a person in a video, but it takes 30 seconds of audio to replicate someone's voice,” Hany Farid, a digital forensics expert at the University of California, Berkeley, told AFP. Told.
“There’s not much you can do unless you hide under a rock.
“Threat vectors have expanded from the Joe Bidens and Taylor Swifts of the world to high school principals, 15-year-olds, reporters, lawyers, bosses, and grandmothers. Everyone is now vulnerable.”
After an official investigation, Dazon Darien, 31, the school's athletic director, was arrested over the footage late last month.
According to the indictment, employees at Pikesville High School feared for their safety after hearing the audio. Teachers feared that the campus was being tapped with recording devices as Eiswart's social media posts became more and more abusive.
“The world would be a better place if you were on the other side of the earth,” one X user wrote to Icewort.
Eiswart, who did not respond to AFP's request for comment, was suspended from school and required security at home.
– 'Damage' –
The crisis thrust the school into the national spotlight after the recording was circulated on social media in January, thanks in part to a popular Instagram account where the post garnered thousands of comments.
The audio was amplified by activist DeRay McKesson and called for the firing of Eiswart's approximately 1 million X followers. When the charges surfaced, he admitted he had been framed.
“We remain concerned about the harm these actions have caused,” Billy Burke, executive director of the union representing Eiswort, said in a statement, referring to the recordings.
The operation comes as multiple U.S. schools are struggling to contain AI-powered deepfake pornography, leading to student harassment amid a lack of federal legislation.
Baltimore County Attorney Scott Shellenberger said at a news conference that the Pikesville case highlights the need to “bring our laws up to date with technology.”
His office has indicted Darien on four charges, including interfering with school activities.
– “One million principals” –
Investigators linked the audio to the competition director in part by connecting him to the email address that originally distributed the audio.
Police said the defamation charges were made in retaliation for an investigation Eiswart launched in December into whether Darien authorized improper payments to the coach, who was also his roommate.
The indictment says Darien searched the school's network for AI tools and used “extensive language models” before producing the audio.
A University of Colorado professor who analyzed the audio for police concluded that it “contains traces of content that was generated by AI and edited by humans after the fact.”
Investigators also consulted Farid and wrote that experts in California found that the recordings were “manipulated and stitched together using unknown software.”
AI-generated content, especially audio that experts say is particularly difficult to spot, sparked national alarm when a fake robocall impersonating Biden urged New Hampshire residents not to vote in the state's primary election. caused.
Farid said the misuse of technology “impacts everything from the entire economy to democracy to high school principals.”
Eiswart's case is a wake-up call for the city of Pikesville, showing how misinformation can disrupt even a “tight-knit community,” said Parker Bratton, the school's golf coach. Told.
“There's one president, there's a million principals. People are saying, 'What does this mean for me? What are the potential consequences for me if someone decides they want to end my career? ?” I am thinking.
“We will never be able to escape this story.”
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