The 42-second voice recording, purportedly of a Maryland high school principal in the midst of a racist rant, derided Black students as “ungrateful” and unable to “test their way out of a paper bag.”
“I’m just so sick of the inadequacies of these people,” sneered the voice on the recording, which was posted on social media in January, igniting outrage and prompting the school district to place the principal on leave.
But the recording was not what it seemed, according to Baltimore County police. A school employee, investigators charged Thursday, had used artificial-intelligence tools to fabricate the audio with the intention of falsely depicting the principal, Eric Eiswert, as bigoted and antisemitic.
The employee, Dazhon Darien, 31, the former athletic director at Pikesville High School, was taken into custody at Baltimore-Washington International Marshall Airport on Thursday as he was about to fly to Houston. Airport security personnel, after detaining Darien because he was carrying a firearm, discovered that a judge had just issued a warrant for his arrest in the AI case.
Darien, in a text message, declined to comment Friday and referred questions to an attorney who was not immediately available. He 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.
― z_tbd, Friday, 26 April 2024 20:30 (two weeks ago) link