A former athletic director has been arrested and charged with multiple crimes after allegedly using artificial intelligence software to clone his boss’ voice to make racist and anti-Semitic remarks about students and staff members.
Baltimore County Police arrested Dazhon Darien, 31, at the Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport as he was trying board a flight to Houston.
Darien was detained for having a firearm. Baltimore Police were notified when airport security personnel discovered there was a warrant for his arrest.
The charges stem from an investigation launched by detectives in January, after a voice recording attributed to Pikesville High School principal Eric Eiswert, which included racial slurs and violent rhetoric, was posted to a popular Baltimore meme account.
After an investigation, authorities determined the audio was generated by AI software.
“Ungrateful Black kids who can’t test their way out of a paper bag,” the AI-generated audio of Eiswert’s voice said in one recording. A separate recording in Eiswert’s alleged voice said if he received “one more complaint from one more Jew in this community, I’m going to join the other side.”
Darien made the recording in retaliation against Eiswert, who at the time was investigating Darien over alleged mishandling of school funds, according to a statement from the Baltimore Police.
According to the New York Times, police said in charging documents that Darien had authorized a payment of $1,916 to his roommate under the pretense that the roommate was working as an assistant coach for the girls’ soccer team.
Shortly after, police said, Darien used a school computer to search for AI tools. In January, Darien e-mailed the deepfake audio impersonating the principal to himself and two other employees at the school. The recording was sent from a Gmail account that appeared to be an unknown third party, but that was tied to Darien’s cellphone, police said.
Detectives partnered with the FBI to obtain a forensic analysis of the recording, the Baltimore Police statement says. The results of the analysis confirmed AI-generated content.
After that finding, detectives contacted a forensic analyst at the University of California, Berkeley, who also concluded that the audio was not authentic.
Darien faces multiple charges including theft, stalking, disruption of school operations, and retaliation against a witness.
