A Baltimore high school athletic director used AI software to fabricate a racist and antisemitic audio recording impersonating the school principal, leading to the principal's temporary removal and safety threats.
In January 2024, Dazhon Darien, a 31-year-old athletic director at Pikesville High School in Baltimore County, used artificial intelligence tools to create a fake 42-second audio recording that appeared to be the school's principal, Eric Eiswert, making racist and antisemitic comments. The fabricated recording included statements about 'ungrateful Black kids who can't test their way out of a paper bag' and disparaging comments about Jewish people. The audio was posted on Instagram on January 17, 2024, and quickly went viral, causing widespread outrage in the school community. As a result, Eiswert was placed on administrative leave and received numerous safety threats, requiring police protection at his home. Investigators determined that Darien created the recording in retaliation against Eiswert, who had been investigating Darien for allegedly mishandling $1,916 in school funds by making unauthorized payments to his roommate. Police worked with forensic analysts from the FBI and University of California Berkeley to determine the recording contained traces of AI-generated content. Darien was arrested at Baltimore-Washington International Airport on April 25, 2024, while attempting to board a flight to Houston. He was charged with disrupting school operations, stalking, theft, and retaliation against a witness, and later sentenced to four months in jail after pleading guilty.
Domain classification, causal taxonomy, severity scores, and national security assessments were LLM-classified and may contain errors.
Using AI systems to gain a personal advantage over others such as through cheating, fraud, scams, blackmail or targeted manipulation of beliefs or behavior. Examples include AI-facilitated plagiarism for research or education, impersonating a trusted or fake individual for illegitimate financial benefit, or creating humiliating or sexual imagery.
Human
Due to a decision or action made by humans
Intentional
Due to an expected outcome from pursuing a goal
Post-deployment
Occurring after the AI model has been trained and deployed