Associated Incidents
CONCORD, NH — A New Orleans magician was hired to use artificial intelligence to impersonate President Joe Biden for a robocall urging New Hampshire democrats to hold their votes in the presidential primary, according to an exclusive NBC News report.
The man, Paul Carpenter, was hired in January by a consultant for rival democratic candidate Dean Phillips to create the call, according to text messages, call logs and Venmo transactions Carpenter apparently shared with NBC News.
Carpenter told the outlet that he created the artificial intelligence audio in 20 minutes for $1, but did not distribute it.
"I was in a situation where someone offered me some money to do something, and I did it," he said. "There was no malicious intent. I didn’t know how it was going to be distributed."
In response to the report, the New Hampshire Department of Justice told Patch that officials "have no comment or new public updates to provide at this time" and that the investigation "remains active and ongoing."
Earlier this month, New Hampshire’s attorney general announced he may be pursuing criminal charges and civil penalties against a Texas man and his company after they were accused of also creating an AI-generated robocall of Biden.
John Formella, the attorney general, accused Walter Monk, who lives in the Arlington, TX, area, and his company, Life Corporation, of Austin, TX, of creating the calls and sending them to Granite Staters urging them not to vote on Jan. 23.
He also said Lingo Telecom was "the originating voice service provider" for many of the calls. The robocall featured Biden’s voice telling voters to "save your vote" for the November election, "not this Tuesday," in an effort to suppress the write-in vote turnout. Voter suppression is a felony in New Hampshire.
Investigators, he said, worked with state and federal partners, including the Anti-Robocall Multistate Litigation Task Force, a bipartisan task force comprising all the state attorneys general, and the FCC Enforcement Bureau. Formella thanked YouMail, Nomorobo, and the Industry Traceback Group for assisting investigators in identifying who sent the calls. Lingo Telecom suspended services to Life Corporation after receiving notice from the attorney general’s office.
The robocalls were sent out to an unknown number of voters on Jan. 21, mostly Democrats, according to complaints received by the department of justice. The calls also listed the cellphone number of the former chairwoman of the New Hampshire Democratic Party, Kathy Sullivan of Manchester, as the number to call so voters to opt out of the robocall.
One North Country Democrat who received the call has accused interests connected to former President Donald Trump of being involved and has called on him to be removed from the November ballot.
However, Formella said investigators had not determined the motive of Monk or any political affiliations he may have or who else might be involved.