A Baltimore-area high school athletic director was arrested Thursday for allegedly using artificial intelligence software to create racist and anti-Semitic audio clips impersonating the school's principal, police said.
Pikesville High School athletic director Dazon Darien allegedly fabricated a recording containing a rant about “ungrateful black kids who can't even get out of a paper bag” in an attempt to smear principal Eric Eiswart. Baltimore County Police Department.
The fake recording, posted on Instagram in mid-January, quickly went viral and rattled Baltimore County Public Schools, the nation's 22nd largest school district with more than 100,000 students. Eiswart, who denied making the comments, received a barrage of safety threats while the district investigated, police said. He was also placed on administrative leave, the district said.
Darien is currently facing charges of interfering with school operations and stalking the principal.
Eiswart reached out to the Council of Administrative Supervisors, a trade group for principals, for comment, but calls from reporters were not returned. Darien, who posted bail Thursday, could not be reached for comment.
The Baltimore County incident is just the latest sign of escalating AI abuse in schools. They often involve deepfakes, or digitally altered video, audio, or images that appear to be real.
Since last fall, schools across the country have been exposed to troubling deepfakes in which male students used AI “nudification” apps to create fake undressed images of their female classmates, some of them 12-year-old middle school students. We are rushing to respond. The Baltimore County deepfake audio incident illustrates new AI risks for schools across the country, this time for veteran educators and district leaders.
Deepfake revenge defamation can happen in any workplace, but it's especially worrying for school officials, who are tasked with protecting and educating children. A Baltimore County official warned Thursday that the rapid proliferation of new generative AI tools is going beyond school protections and state law.
“We are also entering a very alarming new frontier,” Baltimore County Executive Johnny Olszewski said in public comment on Thursday's arrest. He added that community leaders need to “think more broadly about how this technology can be used and misused to harm others.”
The police account of the Baltimore County incident shows how harmful deepfake misinformation can spread quickly in schools and cause lasting harm to educators, students, and families.
According to police documents, Mr. Darien developed a complaint against Mr. Eiswart in December, when the principal began an investigation. Police said Darien authorized $1,916 to be paid to the district under the “pretense” that his roommate worked as an assistant coach for the Pikesville women's soccer team.
Shortly after, police said Darien used the school district's internet services to search for artificial intelligence tools such as OpenAI, the developer of the ChatGPT chatbot, and Microsoft's Bing Chat.
(The New York Times sued OpenAI and its partner Microsoft in December for copyright infringement of news content related to AI systems.)
In mid-January, Darien emailed a deepfake audio clip impersonating the principal to himself and two other employees at the high school, police said. According to police documents, the email with the subject line “Pikesville Principal — Disturbing Recording” was sent from a Gmail account believed to belong to an unknown party, but was linked to Darien's cell phone number. It is said that he was
One of those school employees then sent the fabricated recordings to news outlets and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, according to police documents. She also forwarded the message to a student, and “she knew that the message would spread rapidly across various social media and throughout the school,” her documents state.
Soon, an Instagram account that tracks local crime posted a racist fake audio, calling it a “rant about black students” and naming the principal as the speaker. The audio clip, which lasts less than a minute, has been shared more than 27,000 times, garnering more than 2,800 comments and many calling for the principal to be fired.
Police say the deepfake debunk had a “significant impact” and eroded trust between families, teachers and administrators at Pikesville High School.
Upset and angry parents and students flooded the school with phone calls. According to police, some teachers were concerned that “recording devices may have been placed in various locations within the school.” To address safety concerns, police departments increased their presence at schools.
Police also conducted security surveillance on Mr. Eiswart, who received a series of harassing messages and phone calls, some threatening him and his family with violence.
During public comment at a January school board meeting, William Burke, executive director of the Council of Supervisors and Supervisors, which represents school principals, said social media and news media were encouraging commentators to “promote ice wort without any evidence.” “We are allowing them to criticize him.” There is no accountability. ”
“Please don't rush to judgment,” Burke begged. “Please keep the investigation safe and fair.”
Two outside experts who later analyzed the recordings for the Baltimore County Police Department concluded that the audio clips were manipulated. According to police documents, one expert said it contained “signs of AI-generated and human post-editing.”