US teacher accused of racist deepfake of principal

A Maryland precocious schoolhouse manager has been arrested for allegedly utilizing AI to deepfake a bogus signaling of his main making racist comments.

Dazhon Darien, 31, is accused of creating the hoax audio of Pikesville High School Principal Eric Eiswert.

Mr Eiswert was placed connected permission and had constabulary extracurricular his location amid decease threats helium received implicit the fake clip.

Mr Darien was held astatine an airdrome aft a information cheque implicit a weapon successful his container recovered an apprehension warrant against him.

He faces charges of stalking, theft, disruption of schoolhouse operations and retaliation against a witness.

Baltimore County Schools Superintendent Myriam Rogers said the school, arsenic good arsenic the Baltimore County Police Department, launched an probe connected 17 January erstwhile they were archetypal made alert of the dependable recording.

Detectives requested a forensic investigation of the audio, which recovered it was not authentic.

In the recording, Mr Eiswert's deepfaked dependable is heard making disparaging comments astir achromatic students' trial scores, achromatic teachers and Jews.

Police judge Mr Darien, the Baltimore-area school's diversion director, made the signaling to retaliate against Mr Eiswert due to the fact that helium was pursuing an probe into imaginable mishandling of territory funds.

Mr Darien had authorised a outgo of astir $2,000 (£1,600) to his roommate, falsely claiming the roommate was an adjunct manager for the Pikesville girls' shot team, reports the Baltimore Sun newspaper.

According to investigators, Mr Darien utilized schoolhouse territory net to hunt for artificial quality tools, including Microsoft's Bing Chat and OpenAI.

In mid-January, helium sent an email with the taxable enactment "Pikesville Principal - Disturbing Recording" to himself and 2 different employees astatine the precocious school, said police.

Once the signaling went viral online, the schoolhouse received furious calls from parents and students. 

Baltimore Police Chief Robert McCollough said Mr Darien was arrested astatine Baltimore planetary airport, wherever helium was astir to committee a formation to Houston, Texas.

Officials stopped him due to the fact that of the mode his declared firearm was packed successful his checked luggage and recovered an unfastened apprehension warrant erstwhile searching his name, Chief McCollough said.

The Baltimore County Schools superintendent said officials are taking due enactment pursuing Mr Darien's arrest, including a proposal for termination.

She said it had been "a precise hard time" for the school, the main and his family.

Mr Darien was released connected a $5,000 unsecured enslaved connected Thursday afternoon. He could not beryllium reached for comment.