A voice recording allegedly from a high school principal that included a racist rant against Blacks and Jewish parents was found by police to have been created to discredit the man using an artificial intelligence tool that mimicked his voice.
The former athletic director for Baltimore, Maryland’s, Pikesville High School was arrested for producing the 42-second voice recording that sounded like the school’s principal, Eric Eiswert, describing Black students as unable to “test their way out of a paper bag,”, according to Baltimore County police.
Dazhon Darien, 31, was arrested at the Baltimore-Washington International Marshall Airport on Thursday, according to the Washington Post.
Darien was arrested for having a firearm, but authorities discovered that a judge had just issued a warrant for his arrest in the AI case.
The faked recording was posted on social media in January, the Post reported, sparking thousands of calls for Eiswert’s removal as principal. The recording prompted police to station officers outside Eiswert’s home.
“I’m just so sick of the inadequacies of these people,” the 42-second voice recording, purportedly of Eiswert in the midst of a racist rant, said.
The recording went on to deride Black students as “ungrateful,” and included the faked voice of Eiswert also complaining about getting “one more complaint from one more Jew.”
The school district placed Eiswert on leave.
Eiswert denied making the remarks, which also included one directed at Darien saying he was going to get Darien’s “Black a--” removed from the school “one way or another. I’m gonna get something to stick.” The two had a dispute over a $1,916 payment the athletic director had authorized to another school employee who also was his roommate, according to the charging document.
“Detectives alleged Mr. Darien…made the recording to retaliate against the principal who had launched an investigation into the potential mishandling of school funds,” Baltimore Police Chief McCollough told reporters at a news conference Thursday.
Eiswert remains employed by Baltimore County Public Schools but will not return to Pikesville High this school year, Superintendent Myriam Rogers said at the news conference, The Baltimore Sun reported.
According to the charging document, a University of Colorado forensic analyst listened to the recording, and concluded that the “recording contained traces of AI-generated content with human editing after the fact, which added background noises for realism.”
A second forensic scientist told investigators that the “recording was manipulated and multiple recordings were spliced together.”
Darien was released on a $5,000 bond at a hearing Thursday where he was charged with disrupting school activities, retaliating against a witness, stalking and theft, according to court records, the Sun reported.
Investigators told the Post that they determined that Darien had a paid account for OpenAI tools, though it was unclear what specific service was used to make the AI-generated audio clone.