Jussie Smollett must be devastated that he didn't think of this first!
Listen to this audio recording:
[Warning: Language]
Sounds pretty bad, right? It prompted a wave of hatred for Pikesville High School Principal Eric Eiswert, like this:
BUT IT WAS ALL FAKE.
Yeah, it turns out that a former athletic director, who is black, has been arrested for making this using a clip of the principal's voice that he uploaded to an AI audio platform, which then allowed him to make the recording with whatever words he put into a prompt.
From the Baltimore Banner:
Baltimore County Police arrested Pikesville High School's former athletic director Thursday morning and charged him with using artificial intelligence to impersonate Principal Eric Eiswert, leading the public to believe Eiswert made racist and antisemitic comments behind closed doors.
Dazhon Darien, 31, was apprehended as he attempted to board a flight to Houston at BWI Airport, Baltimore County Police Chief Robert McCullough said at a news conference Thursday afternoon. Darien was stopped for having a gun on him and airport officials saw there was a warrant for his arrest. Police said they did not know whether Darien was trying to flee.
Despite what the woke folks tell you, racism and hate comes in all shapes and sizes. This black guy made a vile rant against blacks and Jews and tried to pin it on a white guy to absolutely destroy his life!
"The audio clip ... had profound repercussions," police wrote in charging documents. "It not only led to Eiswert's temporary removal from the school but also triggered a wave of hate-filled messages on social media and numerous calls to the school. The recording also caused significant disruptions for the PHS staff and students."
Police say Darien made the recording in retaliation after Eiswert initiated an investigation into improper payments he made to a school athletics coach who was also his roommate, and Darien is also charged with theft and retaliating against a witness.
Darien was released on a $5,000 bond.
Meanwhile, Eiswert has not been working at Pikesville High since the recording was made. It is unclear if he was suspended with or without pay.
More from JMORE, a Jewish outlet in Baltimore:
Last March, AI experts told the Banner that the audio was mostly [sic] likely fake, citing its flat quality and lack of consistent breathing sounds.
"From the beginning of this incident, the recording seemed odd and suspicious," said Howard Libit, executive director of the Baltimore Jewish Council. He said this was why his agency held off on issuing any initial comment about the Eiswert case.
Glad someone had some common sense.
WMAR 2 has more details on this criminal genius's attempt to commit cybercrime:
During an interview with detectives, Darien admitted to "having issues" with Eiswert since he was employed.
Darien also confessed to sending the recording from his work email to someone he "shouldn't have," but denied knowing a TJ Foust or having any further involvement in creating or disseminating the clip.
However, police found Darien's phone number listed as the recovery contact for the TJ Foust account.
School tech staff also noticed Darien used their network on three separate occasions to search the internet for OpenAl tools.
"Darien had used Large Language Models (LLMs), such as OpenAl and Bingchat before the recording was released," detectives wrote in charging documents.
We're gonna need some tough crackdowns in the Wild West of AI.
The Baltimore Sun added this note:
Scott Shellenberger, Baltimore County's state's attorney, said this is the first time his office has prosecuted a case related to artificial intelligence, and it's likely the first criminal case in the country. State lawmakers will need to update criminal statutes to include the new technology next legislative session, he said.
My suggestion?
You use AI to destroy a man's life? Yours should be destroyed instead.
Oh, PS, since Darien was accused of reimbursement fraud, this X user found that Darien got Covid relief funds in his name. Someone should probably look into that!
P.S. Now check out our latest video 👇
