A previous athletic director from a high school near Baltimore, who allegedly used artificial intelligence to fabricate a racist and antisemitic audio recording impersonating the school’s principal, was sentenced on Monday to four months in jail as part of a plea agreement, according to prosecutors.
Dazhon Darien, 32, the former director, pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of disrupting school activities, as stated by the Baltimore County State’s Attorney’s Office. He faced other charges previously, including theft, stalking, and retaliating against a witness.
According to The Associated Press, Mr. Darien entered an Alford plea for the charge of disturbing school operations, which allows defendants to assert their innocence while still pleading guilty.
As the former athletic director at Pikesville High School, Mr. Darien created an audio clip that included offensive remarks about “ungrateful Black kids who can’t test their way out of a paper bag” and negative comments directed at Jewish students, based on a statement of facts presented in support of his guilty plea. Police records indicate that the audio was intended to damage the reputation of the school’s principal, Eric Eiswert.
The statement of facts indicated that Mr. Eiswert had discussions with Mr. Darien regarding the non-renewal of his contract due to “poor performance at the school, failure to adhere to established procedures, and refusal to follow the chain of command.” Issues with Mr. Darien surfaced in late 2023, leading up to the audio clip’s release.
Attempts to contact Mr. Darien’s attorney for comments were unsuccessful on Tuesday. The Baltimore County Public Schools district also declined to provide comments on the situation. Efforts to reach Mr. Eiswert on Tuesday were also unsuccessful.
Following his sentencing, Mr. Darien was taken back into federal custody, where he faces charges of sexually exploiting children and possessing child pornography.
The fraudulent recording, which was shared on Instagram in January 2024, quickly went viral, causing turmoil within Baltimore County Public Schools, which serves over 100,000 students. During the investigation, Mr. Eiswert, who denied making the comments, received multiple threats to his safety, according to police. He was subsequently placed on administrative leave by the school district.
As noted in police documents, Mr. Darien developed grievances against Mr. Eiswert back in December after the principal initiated an investigation into him. Police reported that Mr. Darien had approved a school payment of $1,916 to his roommate, falsely claiming the roommate was serving as an assistant coach for the Pikesville girls’ soccer team.
Shortly after the initial events, police revealed that Mr. Darien utilized the school district’s internet to search for artificial intelligence tools, including resources from OpenAI, the creator of the ChatGPT chatbot, and Microsoft’s Bing Chat.
(The New York Times filed a lawsuit against OpenAI and Microsoft in December 2023 for alleged copyright infringement concerning A.I. systems.)
A public defender assigned to represent Mr. Darien did not provide comments regarding the case.
Creating realistic fabricated videos, often referred to as deepfakes, has become increasingly easy. In the past, such technology required complicated software, but now many tools are widely accessible through smartphone apps. This accessibility has raised concerns among some A.I. researchers regarding the potential risks associated with the technology.
