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Incident 675: High School Athletic Director in Baltimore County Created Racist Deepfake Audio Impersonating Principal

Responded
Description: Dazhon Darien, former athletic director at Pikesville High School in Baltimore, used AI to create a deepfake audio clip impersonating Principal Eric Eiswert, embedding racist and antisemitic remarks. The clip, intended to discredit Eiswert, spread widely, leading to threats and his placement on administrative leave. On April 28, 2025, Darien was sentenced to four months in jail after pleading guilty to disturbing school operations.

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Entities

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Alleged: Unknown deepfake technology developer developed an AI system deployed by Dazhon Darien, which harmed Pikesville High School students and staff , Pikesville High School , Eric Eiswert and Baltimore County Public Schools community.
Alleged implicated AI systems: Unknown voice cloning technology and Unknown deepfake technology

Incident Stats

Incident ID
675
Report Count
5
Incident Date
2024-01-15
Editors
Daniel Atherton
Applied Taxonomies
MIT

MIT Taxonomy Classifications

Machine-Classified
Taxonomy Details

Risk Subdomain

A further 23 subdomains create an accessible and understandable classification of hazards and harms associated with AI
 

4.3. Fraud, scams, and targeted manipulation

Risk Domain

The Domain Taxonomy of AI Risks classifies risks into seven AI risk domains: (1) Discrimination & toxicity, (2) Privacy & security, (3) Misinformation, (4) Malicious actors & misuse, (5) Human-computer interaction, (6) Socioeconomic & environmental harms, and (7) AI system safety, failures & limitations.
 
  1. Malicious Actors & Misuse

Entity

Which, if any, entity is presented as the main cause of the risk
 

Human

Timing

The stage in the AI lifecycle at which the risk is presented as occurring
 

Post-deployment

Intent

Whether the risk is presented as occurring as an expected or unexpected outcome from pursuing a goal
 

Intentional

Incident Reports

Reports Timeline

Incident Occurrence+3
School Employee Arrested After Racist Deepfake Recording of Principal Spreads
Ex-School Athletic Director Gets 4 Months in Jail for Racist Deepfake Recording - Response
School Employee Arrested After Racist Deepfake Recording of Principal Spreads

School Employee Arrested After Racist Deepfake Recording of Principal Spreads

nytimes.com

Baltimore high school athletic director used AI to create fake racist recording of principal, authorities say

Baltimore high school athletic director used AI to create fake racist recording of principal, authorities say

msn.com

Baltimore high school athletic director used AI to create fake racist audio of principal: Police

Baltimore high school athletic director used AI to create fake racist audio of principal: Police

abcnews.go.com

Baltimore principal’s racist rant was an AI fake. His colleague was arrested.

Baltimore principal’s racist rant was an AI fake. His colleague was arrested.

washingtonpost.com

Ex-School Athletic Director Gets 4 Months in Jail for Racist Deepfake Recording

Ex-School Athletic Director Gets 4 Months in Jail for Racist Deepfake Recording

nytimes.com

School Employee Arrested After Racist Deepfake Recording of Principal Spreads
nytimes.com · 2024

A high school athletic director in the Baltimore area was arrested on Thursday after the police said he used artificial intelligence software to manufacture a racist and antisemitic audio clip that impersonated the school's principal.

Dazho…

Baltimore high school athletic director used AI to create fake racist recording of principal, authorities say
msn.com · 2024

A Baltimore high school athletic director was arrested and charged Thursday with using artificial intelligence to impersonate a principal on a voice recording that included derogatory comments about students and staff, authorities said.

Daz…

Baltimore high school athletic director used AI to create fake racist audio of principal: Police
abcnews.go.com · 2024

Police arrested a Baltimore high school athletic director Thursday after they said they discovered he allegedly used artificial intelligence to create a phony audio recording of the school's principal that went viral and cost the school lea…

Baltimore principal’s racist rant was an AI fake. His colleague was arrested.
washingtonpost.com · 2024

The 42-second voice recording, purportedly of a Maryland high school principal in the midst of a racist rant, derided Black students as "ungrateful" and unable to "test their way out of a paper bag."

"I'm just so sick of the inadequacies of…

Ex-School Athletic Director Gets 4 Months in Jail for Racist Deepfake Recording
nytimes.com · 2025
Aimee Ortiz post-incident response

A former athletic director at a Baltimore area high school who was accused of using artificial intelligence to create a racist and antisemitic audio clip impersonating the school's principal was sentenced on Monday to four months in jail as…

Variants

A "variant" is an incident that shares the same causative factors, produces similar harms, and involves the same intelligent systems as a known AI incident. Rather than index variants as entirely separate incidents, we list variations of incidents under the first similar incident submitted to the database. Unlike other submission types to the incident database, variants are not required to have reporting in evidence external to the Incident Database. Learn more from the research paper.
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