A Maryland high school athletic director was detained on Thursday on suspicion of using artificial intelligence ( AI ) to portray his principal as a racist. While reviewing airline requirements for carrying a rifle, he was apprehended at an aircraft.
After an audio recording of him allegedly ranting against black and Jewish citizens in the school system made rounds on social media in January, Pikesville High School ( PHS) Principal Eric Eiswert was fired from his position and subject to abuse, according to the Baltimore Banner.
The voice in the audio made the remarks “ungrateful black kids who ca n’t test their way out of a paper bag” and said,” If I have to get one more Jew in this community, I’m going to join the other side.”
Additionally, the tracking listed a number of university people who should be fired, including athletic director Dazhon” D. J.” Darien, whom the words threatened to “drag his dark cock out of here one way or another”.
While Eiswert denied that he made those offensive notes, some individuals, society people, and even PHS team believed he was the voice behind the recording.
Baltimore County Public Schools and Baltimore County Police opened inquiries into the problem after the voice received widespread online coverage.  ,
According to charging files obtained by the local newspaper, Darien is the owner of an email accounts that distributed the picture and searched for AI tools that may misrepresent vocal recordings that were made on the school’s community in December and January.  ,
The night before the video went viral, three professors, one of whom was identified as Darien, the following as Shaena Ravenell, and the second as someone who claimed Darien and Ravenell sent it to her, were in possession of the picture, according to authorities.
Ravenell told the police that she had sent the video to” she knew had quickly spread the message around various social media sources and throughout the school,” according to Ravenell.
According to the Banner,” She did not mention receiving it from Darien until we were confronted about his involvement,” which stated that she has never been charged with a violence for her involvement in the case.
” The audio tape … had deep implications”, police wrote in charging papers for Darien. Eiswert’s temporary removal from the class was a result of the combination of the two, which also resulted in a storm of hate-filled social media posts and numerous phone calls to the school. Additionally, the recording caused major problems to the PHS staff and students.
Investigators believe Darien fabricated the comments in response to Eiswert’s request to launch an investigation into allegedly making unauthorized payments to another class coach, who was also his roommate.
The investigation started in December when police claimed Darien sent$ 1, 916 from the school’s payroll system to the junior varsity basketball coach despite the fact that he was n’t an assistant girls ‘ soccer coach.  ,
A warrant was issued for Darien’s arrest on Wednesday, and he was apprehended the following morning at Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport with tickets to travel to Houston, Texas.
According to Baltimore County Police Chief Robert McCullough, the arrest was made after Darien was stopped by airport security and questioned about how well he had correctly packed his weapon for traveling.
When safety ran his name through police information, the subpoena popped up, and he was taken into custody.
Darien has since been charged with disrupting school activities, fraud, retaliation against a testimony, and stalking.
According to NBC News, McCullough stated during the Thursday press briefing that” we now have convincing proof that the tracking was no authentic.” It has been established that artificial intelligence technology was used to create the saving.
The key” stopped small” of saying whether Darien was attempting to flee, the outlet noted.
” As you could imagine, this has been a very difficult time for]the ] Pikesville High School community, principal Eiswert, and his family”, Baltimore County Public Schools Superintendent Myriam Rogers said.
Lloyd Fox/Baltimore Sun/Tribune News Service via Getty Images
Since the investigation began, Eiswert has n’t worked at PHS and wo n’t return for the rest of the school year. Rogers stated that the area will work with him to decide what he should do for the upcoming semester.
She continued, noting that city officials had suggested Darien’s dismissal, but that both he and Ravenell had previously resigned as of April 16 as per the Banner. The deadline for both of their positions within the educational program is set for June 30.
When the voice was presumed to be true in January, Rogers called it “disturbing” and said it contained “highly offensive and inappropriate remarks about African American students, Pikesville High School workers, and Pikesville’s Jewish society”.
The only official to acknowledge that the picture may have been created by AI was Billy Burke, head of the Council of Administrative &, Supervisory People ( CASE), which is the regional coalition Eiswert belongs to.
Burke claimed at a January panel meeting that the superintendent had police guarding his house because of the harassment and threats his household had received and that others had assumed that Eiswert made those remarks.
Burke claimed that at the moment, he had also been subjected to harassing letters.  ,
The union head said in a speech on Thursday that” I continue to be concerned about the harm these actions have caused to Principal Eiswert, his household, the students and staff of Pikesville High School, as well as the people of the dark and Jewish society.” ” I hope it is purposeful action to heal the pain caused by the fake voice and that all people feel restored,” he said.
After class instructors raised safety concerns as a result of the backlash from the tape, police said PHS had to raise police presence on campus.
Police said that teachers “felt that saving devices could have been planted in different locations in the school” despite the fact that they believed the audio to be real.
” The recording’s transfer seriously affected the confidence between teachers and the management”, authorities said. One student claimed to have received sympathetic phone calls in their car parking lot rather than attend school.
One of the first cases of its kind in the whole country, according to Baltimore County State Attorney Scott Shellenberger, who represents the district’s lawyer.  ,
According to him,” It seems very obvious that we may need to make our way down to Annapolis in the legislature next year to make some adaptations to keep the law up to date with the technology that was being used.”
Baltimore County professional Johnny Olszewski Jr. called current developments in AI systems “deeply concerning” and advised people to be vigilant when looking into potential abuses.
He added that more money may be put into developing tools to find fake sound recordings.  ,
The National Education Association is working on addressing the Artificial issues, but something more needs to be done, according to Cindy Sexton, leader of the Teachers Association of Baltimore County.  ,
” We have to do something as a nation, but ‘ what is that anything ‘ is of course the big problem”, Sexton said
