On April 25, Baltimore County Police arrested a former athletic director and charged him with crimes related to the alleged use of artificial intelligence to impersonate a principal.
Principal Eric Eisworth was removed from his position at Pikesville High School after an audio clip was investigated and circulated around social media in January 2024. The audio clip made it seem that Eisworth made racist comments against Black and Jewish people.
Eisworth continued to say that the audio never happened and told investigators that Dazhon Darien, the athletic director at the school, may have been involved because he was good with technology. Darien was one of the three teachers who received the audio from an anonymous email. When Darien was questioned by investigators, he claimed he didn’t know who sent him the audio.
Investigators were later able to determine that the email address that sent the audio was registered to Darien. The police department gave the audio to two forensic analysts who specialize in AI and determined the recordings were AI-generated. Detectives allege that Darien used platforms such as OpenAI to create the recording and that he had a paid OpenAI account, which offers more features than the free version.
“Detectives alleged Mr. Darien … made the recording to retaliate against the principal who had launched an investigation into the potential mishandling of school funds,” Baltimore Chief of Police Robert McCollough said.
Darien was arrested at Thurgood Marshall Airport as he was trying to board a flight and charged with several criminal counts including disrupting a school operation and stalking. He was released on a $5,000 unsecured bond later that afternoon.
