DISARMframeworks/generated_pages/incidents/I00103.md

Incident I00103: The racist AI deepfake that fooled and divided a community

• Summary: When an audio clip appeared to show a local school principal making derogatory comments, it went viral online, sparked death threats against the educator and sent ripples through a suburb outside the city of Baltimore. But it was soon exposed as a fake, manipulated by artificial intelligence - so why do people still believe it’s real?

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Reference	Pub Date	Authors	Org	Archive
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/ckg9k5dv1zdo	2024/10/05	Marianna Spring	BBC News	https://web.archive.org/web/20241009114904/https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/ckg9k5dv1zdo

Technique	Description given for this incident
T0088.001 Develop AI-Generated Audio (Deepfakes)	IT00000385 “I seriously don't understand why I have to constantly put up with these dumbasses here every day.” So began what appeared to be a long tirade from the principal of Pikesville High School, punctuated with racist, antisemitic and offensive tropes. It sounded like it had been secretly recorded. The speaker went on to bemoan “ungrateful black kids” and Jewish people in the community. The clip, first posted in [January 2024], went viral nationally. But it really struck a nerve in the peaceful, leafy suburb of Pikesville, which has large black and Jewish populations, and in the nearby city of Baltimore, Maryland. Principal Eric Eiswert was put on paid administrative leave pending an investigation. [...] But what those sharing the clip didn’t realise at the time was that another bombshell was about to drop: the clip was an AI-generated fake. [...] [In April 2024], Baltimore Police Chief Robert McCullough confirmed they now had “conclusive evidence that the recording was not authentic”. And they believed they knew who made the fake. Police charged 31-year-old Dazhon Darien, the school’s athletics director, with several counts related to the fake video. Charges included theft, retaliating against a witness and stalking. He was arrested at the airport, where police say he was planning to fly to Houston, Texas. Police say that Mr Darien had been under investigation by Principal Eiswert over an alleged theft of $1,916 (£1,460) from the school. They also allege there had been “work performance challenges” and his contract was likely not to be renewed. Their theory was that by creating the deepfake recording, he hoped to discredit the principal before he could be fired. Investigators say they traced an email used to send the original video to a server connected to Mr Darien, and allege that he used Baltimore County Public Schools' computer network to access AI tools. He is due to stand trial in December 2024. By associating Mr Darien to the server used to email the original AI generated audio, investigators link Darien to the fabricated content (T0149.005: Server Asset, T0088.001: AI Generated Audio (Deepfakes)). They also assert that Darien used computers owned by the school to access platforms used to generate the audio (T0146: Account Asset, T0154.002: AI Media Platform).
T0146 Account Asset	IT00000387 “I seriously don't understand why I have to constantly put up with these dumbasses here every day.” So began what appeared to be a long tirade from the principal of Pikesville High School, punctuated with racist, antisemitic and offensive tropes. It sounded like it had been secretly recorded. The speaker went on to bemoan “ungrateful black kids” and Jewish people in the community. The clip, first posted in [January 2024], went viral nationally. But it really struck a nerve in the peaceful, leafy suburb of Pikesville, which has large black and Jewish populations, and in the nearby city of Baltimore, Maryland. Principal Eric Eiswert was put on paid administrative leave pending an investigation. [...] But what those sharing the clip didn’t realise at the time was that another bombshell was about to drop: the clip was an AI-generated fake. [...] [In April 2024], Baltimore Police Chief Robert McCullough confirmed they now had “conclusive evidence that the recording was not authentic”. And they believed they knew who made the fake. Police charged 31-year-old Dazhon Darien, the school’s athletics director, with several counts related to the fake video. Charges included theft, retaliating against a witness and stalking. He was arrested at the airport, where police say he was planning to fly to Houston, Texas. Police say that Mr Darien had been under investigation by Principal Eiswert over an alleged theft of $1,916 (£1,460) from the school. They also allege there had been “work performance challenges” and his contract was likely not to be renewed. Their theory was that by creating the deepfake recording, he hoped to discredit the principal before he could be fired. Investigators say they traced an email used to send the original video to a server connected to Mr Darien, and allege that he used Baltimore County Public Schools' computer network to access AI tools. He is due to stand trial in December 2024. By associating Mr Darien to the server used to email the original AI generated audio, investigators link Darien to the fabricated content (T0149.005: Server Asset, T0088.001: AI Generated Audio (Deepfakes)). They also assert that Darien used computers owned by the school to access platforms used to generate the audio (T0146: Account Asset, T0154.002: AI Media Platform).
T0149.005 Server Asset	IT00000384 “I seriously don't understand why I have to constantly put up with these dumbasses here every day.” So began what appeared to be a long tirade from the principal of Pikesville High School, punctuated with racist, antisemitic and offensive tropes. It sounded like it had been secretly recorded. The speaker went on to bemoan “ungrateful black kids” and Jewish people in the community. The clip, first posted in [January 2024], went viral nationally. But it really struck a nerve in the peaceful, leafy suburb of Pikesville, which has large black and Jewish populations, and in the nearby city of Baltimore, Maryland. Principal Eric Eiswert was put on paid administrative leave pending an investigation. [...] But what those sharing the clip didn’t realise at the time was that another bombshell was about to drop: the clip was an AI-generated fake. [...] [In April 2024], Baltimore Police Chief Robert McCullough confirmed they now had “conclusive evidence that the recording was not authentic”. And they believed they knew who made the fake. Police charged 31-year-old Dazhon Darien, the school’s athletics director, with several counts related to the fake video. Charges included theft, retaliating against a witness and stalking. He was arrested at the airport, where police say he was planning to fly to Houston, Texas. Police say that Mr Darien had been under investigation by Principal Eiswert over an alleged theft of $1,916 (£1,460) from the school. They also allege there had been “work performance challenges” and his contract was likely not to be renewed. Their theory was that by creating the deepfake recording, he hoped to discredit the principal before he could be fired. Investigators say they traced an email used to send the original video to a server connected to Mr Darien, and allege that he used Baltimore County Public Schools' computer network to access AI tools. He is due to stand trial in December 2024. By associating Mr Darien to the server used to email the original AI generated audio, investigators link Darien to the fabricated content (T0149.005: Server Asset, T0088.001: AI Generated Audio (Deepfakes)). They also assert that Darien used computers owned by the school to access platforms used to generate the audio (T0146: Account Asset, T0154.002: AI Media Platform).
T0154.002 AI Media Platform	IT00000386 “I seriously don't understand why I have to constantly put up with these dumbasses here every day.” So began what appeared to be a long tirade from the principal of Pikesville High School, punctuated with racist, antisemitic and offensive tropes. It sounded like it had been secretly recorded. The speaker went on to bemoan “ungrateful black kids” and Jewish people in the community. The clip, first posted in [January 2024], went viral nationally. But it really struck a nerve in the peaceful, leafy suburb of Pikesville, which has large black and Jewish populations, and in the nearby city of Baltimore, Maryland. Principal Eric Eiswert was put on paid administrative leave pending an investigation. [...] But what those sharing the clip didn’t realise at the time was that another bombshell was about to drop: the clip was an AI-generated fake. [...] [In April 2024], Baltimore Police Chief Robert McCullough confirmed they now had “conclusive evidence that the recording was not authentic”. And they believed they knew who made the fake. Police charged 31-year-old Dazhon Darien, the school’s athletics director, with several counts related to the fake video. Charges included theft, retaliating against a witness and stalking. He was arrested at the airport, where police say he was planning to fly to Houston, Texas. Police say that Mr Darien had been under investigation by Principal Eiswert over an alleged theft of $1,916 (£1,460) from the school. They also allege there had been “work performance challenges” and his contract was likely not to be renewed. Their theory was that by creating the deepfake recording, he hoped to discredit the principal before he could be fired. Investigators say they traced an email used to send the original video to a server connected to Mr Darien, and allege that he used Baltimore County Public Schools' computer network to access AI tools. He is due to stand trial in December 2024. By associating Mr Darien to the server used to email the original AI generated audio, investigators link Darien to the fabricated content (T0149.005: Server Asset, T0088.001: AI Generated Audio (Deepfakes)). They also assert that Darien used computers owned by the school to access platforms used to generate the audio (T0146: Account Asset, T0154.002: AI Media Platform).

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