A physical education teacher was arrested on suspicion of using an AI voice cloning service to trick the school principal.
Report from baltimore bannerBaltimore County police said they believe audio circulating of Pikesville High School Principal Eric Eiswart making racist and anti-Semitic remarks is fake.
Experts told police that the recordings had a “flat tone, typically clean background sounds, and lacked consistent pauses and breathing sounds.”
The recording resulted in Mr. Eiswart's brief suspension and months of harassment for him and his family.
Baltimore County police then reportedly traced the recording to the school's former athletic director, Dazon Darien, whose name was also mentioned in the audio clip.
He is suspected of using the school's computers “to access OpenAI tools and Microsoft Bing Chat services,” according to the report. NBC News.
He was also linked to the audio release through an email address and associated recovery phone number.
On April 25, Darien was arrested by police at the airport.
“It is believed that Mr. Darien, who was the athletic director at Pikesville High School, made the recording in retaliation against Mr. Eiswart, who at the time was under investigation for possible student fraud,” authorities said in a statement.
He was released on bail and faces charges including theft (of school funds), obstructing school operations, retaliation against a witness, and stalking.
In March, OpenAI withheld the public release of its AI text-to-speech engine, Voice Engine, in response to controversy surrounding the power of AI technology.
Currently, the lack of legislation surrounding AI technology makes it available to only a limited number of researchers.
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