PE teacher allegedly used AI voice clone to bully principal out of office

Summary

A former physical education teacher at a Baltimore high school has been arrested for allegedly creating an AI-generated voice clone of the school’s principal, Eric Eiswert, and using his voice to spread racist and anti-Semitic comments on social media.

The voice clone reportedly sounded real enough to lead to hate messages against Eiswert as well as disruptions to school operations, forcing him to temporarily resign due to threats against him and concerns for his safety, according to police.

Forensic analysts from the University of California and the FBI determined that the recording was made using artificial intelligence.

Police say a possible motive is that Eiswert did not want to renew the accused teacher’s contract because of frequent performance problems. Eiswert is also believed to have initiated a possible investigation of Darien for misappropriation of school funds. The teacher is accused of retaliating against witnesses, harassment, theft, and disrupting school operation

The Baltimore County executive said this case shows that with the advent of AI technologies, greater caution is needed when handling audio and visual material, calling it a “new, deeply concerning frontier.” The AI tools used in the recording were not disclosed.

The dangers of voice cloning are obvious and to some extent already a reality, as in the recent case of actress Amelia Tyler, whose voice clone was misused to read rape pornography.

Positive applications of voice cloning, such as in the medical field, would still be possible if the technology were more strictly regulated for the public.

But since convincing voice cloning is already possible with open-source AI software, the window of opportunity may be closed, or at least narrowed.