Baltimore coach allegedly used AI voice cloning to get principal fired

A bodily training trainer and former athletic director of a Baltimore County highschool has been arrested and charged with utilizing an AI voice cloning service to border the varsity’s principal.

The Baltimore Banner experiences that Baltimore County police consider a recording whiich circulated by way of social media in January with purported audio of Pikesville Excessive Faculty principal Eric Eiswert making racist and antisemitic feedback was faux. Consultants advised The Baltimore Banner and police that the recording, which briefly resulted in Eiswert’s suspension, has a “flat tone, unusually clear background sounds, and lack of constant respiration sounds or pauses.” 

Baltimore County police traced the recording to Dazhon Darien, a former athletic director on the faculty whose title was additionally talked about within the audio clip. He allegedly accessed faculty computer systems “to entry OpenAI instruments and Microsoft Bing Chat providers” as reported by WBAL 11 and NBC Information. He was additionally linked to the audio’s launch by way of an e-mail tackle and related restoration cellphone quantity.

It’s not clear what AI voice platform Darien allegedly used.

The police arrested Darien on Thursday on the airport, and mentioned in an announcement “It’s believed Mr. Darien, who was an Athletic Director at Pikesville Excessive Faculty, made the recording to retaliate in opposition to Mr. Eiswert who on the time was pursuing an investigation into the potential mishandling of faculty funds.” He has been launched after posting bail, and faces costs together with theft (for the difficulty with faculty funds), disturbing the operations of a college, retaliation in opposition to a witness, and stalking.

On this fraught atmosphere, OpenAI determined in March to withhold its AI text-to-voice technology platform, Voice Engine, from public use. The service, which solely requires a 15-minute audio clip to clone somebody’s voice, is barely out there to a restricted variety of researchers because of the lack of guardrails across the expertise.

US lawmakers have filed, however not but handed, a number of payments like the No Fakes Act and the No AI Fraud Act that search to stop expertise corporations from utilizing a person’s face, voice, or title with out their permission.

Replace April twenty fifth: Clarified that Pikesville Excessive Faculty is within the metropolis of Pikesville in Baltimore County, MD, added particulars about Darien and Thursday’s arrest.