US Teacher Charged With Using AI To Frame Principal With Hate Speech Clip
(Thursday April 25, 2024 @11:30PM (BeauHD)
from the world-we-live-in dept.)
- Reference: 0173643054
- News link: https://yro.slashdot.org/story/24/04/25/2215233/us-teacher-charged-with-using-ai-to-frame-principal-with-hate-speech-clip
- Source link:
Thomas Claburn reports via The Register:
> Baltimore police have arrested Dazhon Leslie Darien, the former athletic director of Pikesville High School (PHS), for [1]allegedly impersonating the school's principal using AI software to make it seem as if he made racist and antisemitic remarks. Darien, of Baltimore, Maryland, was subsequently charged with witness retaliation, stalking, theft, and disrupting school operations. He was detained late at night trying to board a flight at BWI Thurgood Marshall Airport. Security personnel stopped him because the declared firearm he had with him was improperly packed and an ensuing background check revealed an open warrant for his arrest.
>
> "On January 17, 2024, the Baltimore County Police Department became aware of a voice recording being circulated on social media," said Robert McCullough, Chief of Baltimore County Police, at a streamed press conference today. "It was alleged the voice captured on the audio file belong to Mr Eric Eiswert, the Principal at the Pikesville High School. We now have conclusive evidence that the recording was not authentic. "The Baltimore County Police Department reached that determination after conducting an extensive investigation, which included bringing in a forensic analyst contracted with the FBI to review the recording. The results of the analysis indicated the recording contained traces of AI-generated content." McCullough said a second opinion from a forensic analyst at the University of California, Berkeley, also determined the recording was not authentic. "Based off of those findings and further investigation, it's been determined the recording was generated through the use of artificial intelligence technology," he said.
>
> According to the warrant issued for Darien's arrest, the audio file was shared through social media on January 17 after being sent via email to school teachers. The recording sounded as if Principal Eric Eiswert had made remarks inflammatory enough to prompt a police visit to advise on protective security measures for staff. [...] The clip, according to the warrant, led to the temporary removal of Eiswert from his position and "a wave of hate-filled messages on social media and numerous calls to the school," and significantly disrupted school operations. Police say it led to threats against Eiswert and concerns about his safety. Eiswert told investigators that he believes the audio clip was fake as "he never had the conversations in the recording." And he said he believed Darien was responsible due to his technical familiarity with AI and had a possible motive: Eiswert said there "had been conversations with Darien about his contract not being renewed next semester due to frequent work performance challenges."
"It is clear that we are also entering a new deeply concerning frontier as we continue to embrace emerging technology and its potential for innovation and social good," said John Olszewski, Baltimore County Executive, during a press conference. "We must also remain vigilant against those who would have used it for malicious intent. That will require us to be more aware and more discerning about the audio we hear and the images we see. We will need to be careful in our judgment."
[1] https://www.theregister.com/2024/04/25/ai_voice_arrest/
> Baltimore police have arrested Dazhon Leslie Darien, the former athletic director of Pikesville High School (PHS), for [1]allegedly impersonating the school's principal using AI software to make it seem as if he made racist and antisemitic remarks. Darien, of Baltimore, Maryland, was subsequently charged with witness retaliation, stalking, theft, and disrupting school operations. He was detained late at night trying to board a flight at BWI Thurgood Marshall Airport. Security personnel stopped him because the declared firearm he had with him was improperly packed and an ensuing background check revealed an open warrant for his arrest.
>
> "On January 17, 2024, the Baltimore County Police Department became aware of a voice recording being circulated on social media," said Robert McCullough, Chief of Baltimore County Police, at a streamed press conference today. "It was alleged the voice captured on the audio file belong to Mr Eric Eiswert, the Principal at the Pikesville High School. We now have conclusive evidence that the recording was not authentic. "The Baltimore County Police Department reached that determination after conducting an extensive investigation, which included bringing in a forensic analyst contracted with the FBI to review the recording. The results of the analysis indicated the recording contained traces of AI-generated content." McCullough said a second opinion from a forensic analyst at the University of California, Berkeley, also determined the recording was not authentic. "Based off of those findings and further investigation, it's been determined the recording was generated through the use of artificial intelligence technology," he said.
>
> According to the warrant issued for Darien's arrest, the audio file was shared through social media on January 17 after being sent via email to school teachers. The recording sounded as if Principal Eric Eiswert had made remarks inflammatory enough to prompt a police visit to advise on protective security measures for staff. [...] The clip, according to the warrant, led to the temporary removal of Eiswert from his position and "a wave of hate-filled messages on social media and numerous calls to the school," and significantly disrupted school operations. Police say it led to threats against Eiswert and concerns about his safety. Eiswert told investigators that he believes the audio clip was fake as "he never had the conversations in the recording." And he said he believed Darien was responsible due to his technical familiarity with AI and had a possible motive: Eiswert said there "had been conversations with Darien about his contract not being renewed next semester due to frequent work performance challenges."
"It is clear that we are also entering a new deeply concerning frontier as we continue to embrace emerging technology and its potential for innovation and social good," said John Olszewski, Baltimore County Executive, during a press conference. "We must also remain vigilant against those who would have used it for malicious intent. That will require us to be more aware and more discerning about the audio we hear and the images we see. We will need to be careful in our judgment."
[1] https://www.theregister.com/2024/04/25/ai_voice_arrest/
Execution (Score:3)
by registrations_suck ( 1075251 )
Trying to ruin someone's life should receive a death sentence.
Teachers seem dumb (Score:1)
by walterbyrd ( 182728 )
This reminds of other stories about teachers. Teaching is beginning to look like one of the worlds dumbest professions.
Re: (Score:2)
by Tony Isaac ( 1301187 )
No, most teachers are intelligent, motivated, caring people who give up a lot to help children grow up right. This is just a story of one dumb teacher, his actions don't reflect on the entire profession.
Re: (Score:2)
This was a teacher and a high-school principal. Who were the hateful powerful people in this situation?
Re: (Score:3)
> If you read the actual merits of the case
Okay... "According to police documents, Mr. Darien developed a grievance against Mr. Eiswert in December after the principal began investigating him. Mr. Darien had authorized a district payment of $1,916 to his roommate, police said, “under the pretense” that the roommate was working as an assistant coach for the Pikesville girls’ soccer team."
I've looked through three articles and seen no mention of any of the wild-eyed bullshit that you said here.
Re: (Score:1)
Have you considered taking a look at accuser's social media profiles, instead of wondering why people who support BLM are being protective of a known BLM activist?
And then cross reference that with the contents of AI generated speeches to reach the self evident conclusion? Remember, you don't have to go to the spin doctors. You can just go to primary sources.
Re: (Score:2)
curious.
what software did the p e coach use
Re: (Score:1)
I have no specialist skills to reverse engineer the specific knowledge of software that he used from a sound clip. That would require extreme level of knowledge in field of generative audio models and comprehensive data analysis.
I'm not sure how that's relevant which specific generative model he used either. There are quite a few that are open to all.
Re: (Score:2)
> Have you considered taking a look at ..., instead of wondering ...
I haven't done either of those things. I don't even know which accuser you're talking about. There's the principle, who accused the teacher of theft. There's the teacher, who indirectly accused the principle of hate speech. There's the police, who have accused the teacher of fabricating the recording. And there's you, who has accused the nebulous 'other' of some kind of vague conspiracy.
Although now you're talking about BLM... no idea how that came into this.
Admittedly, I'm not willing to start using
Re: (Score:1)
This is my point. You don't care about what happened. If you did, you'd go to readily available primary sources.
Instead you decided to attack me for referencing primary sources, because spin doctors you're comfortable with didn't mention them. Essentially, your attack on me is an act of maintenance of your ideological bubble against the reality that is more than willing to stare you in the face. It just takes one search on the subject and going on from there.
But you're telling me, straight up with full hone
Re: (Score:2)
> I've looked through three articles and seen no mention of any of the wild-eyed bullshit that you said here.
It's a bit ambiguous what you're talking about, however if it is what I think it is, note from TFS:
> The clip, according to the warrant, led to the temporary removal of Eiswert from his position and "a wave of hate-filled messages on social media and numerous calls to the school," and significantly disrupted school operations. Police say it led to threats against Eiswert and concerns about his safety.
Suppose the recording was real. Do we know the whole context? Do we know his mental state? And yes, this is important:
[1]https://www.medicaldaily.com/b... [medicaldaily.com]
Swear words are basically just whatever words are forbidden in a person's language. The very fact that they're forbidden is often why we utter them at all. They even give us comfort even if the person saying them otherwise detests the actual meaning of the word.
[1] https://www.medicaldaily.com/brain-science-cursing-how-swear-words-work-inflict-and-relieve-pain-331264
Re:"Hate Speech" you say. (Score:5, Insightful)
No, hate speech is speech that attacks not just an individual, but a whole class of people. Now powerful people may only care in cases involving certain classes of people.
But in general, this is exactly why we've moved away from using certain words as insults. If the word describes a real class of people, then using it as in insult for someone else is implicitly insulting all the people the word actually applies to.
Re: (Score:1)
Now powerful people may only care in cases involving certain classes of people.
Witness the protests over Israel's deliberate killing of civilians, medical personnel, and reporters. All protests, anywhere, [1]are now labeled antisemitic [seattletimes.com]. In other words, fuck your free speech. Some powerful people don't like it.
[1] https://www.seattletimes.com/nation-world/netanyahu-calls-student-protests-antisemitic-and-says-they-must-be-quelled/
Re:"Hate Speech" you say. (Score:4, Insightful)
But, "Death to Israel" and "Death to America' are perfectly legit in your mind, mmmm yes?
Keep getting your news from the horse trough, you're doing just fine.
Re: (Score:2)
You seem to have lost the thread of this conversation. "Death to Israel" has, rightly or wrongly, often been labeled as antisemitic. Sometimes by powerful people. And so that would another example of the point that the parent was making.
I don't see where you got anything about those phrases "being okay" from what the parent said. Start over from the top of the thread and try again.
Re: (Score:3)
When there's a law about this, the law usually has a more solid definition than mass media has. In this particular instance, hate speech is not what the accused is being charged with, but what the accused tried to frame his boss for (framing him in the social circles). Which means that for this story, the definition of hate speech is utterly irrelevant, the accused may as well have used AI to generate a fake phone sex recording of his boss.
Re: (Score:2)
> " In this particular instance, hate speech is not what the accused is being charged with"
Oh, *I* know that, but every article that references "hate speech" in an article gives the term/concept a tiny bit more "legitimacy." I want to combat that any time I see it.
Re: (Score:2, Insightful)
Good luck seeing any kind of unilateral application of that idea. The reality is that it will be used as a cudgel to attack those with whom the group in charge disagrees with.
For example, if I were to call you a moron, no one would even bat an eye even though I've disparaged the unintelligent. The term was specifically used to refer to people who today would be considered to suffer from mild mental retardation. That's certainly a class of people.
I'm also curious if you'd accuse a black person calling
Re: (Score:2)
My contempt for landlords and my expression of that contempt is not hate speech. So your definition is a little lacking.
Re: (Score:2)
Not so. There are generally widely accepted things that do not lie in this realm. For example, threats and fighting words, defamation and libel.
Here was an obvious example of the latter half.
Re: (Score:1)
Hate speech is just speech that people hate.