In an alarming turn of events that underscores the potential ramifications of artificial intelligence technology, Baltimore County Police arrested a former high school athletic director on Thursday morning. He is being charged with allegedly using artificial intelligence to mimic the principal’s voice to deceive the community into believing he had made derogatory comments about black and Jewish people.

Dazhon Darien, 31, was arrested while trying to board a flight to Houston at the airport. He was stopped when it was discovered he was carrying a firearm, and the authorities saw that he had a warrant for his arrest.

Maryland Transportation Authority Police arrested Darien as he was boarding a plane to Houston from BWI Marshall Airport. Law enforcement officers flagged Darien’s bag for the way he packaged a gun in his checked luggage and discovered he had an active arrest warrant.

Baltimore County Police Chief Robert McCullough said police intended to serve the warrant Thursday. He didn’t know whether Darien was trying to flee or had travel plans.

Darien is also charged with theft, retaliating against a witness and stalking. He was released on a $5,000 bond from the Baltimore County Detention Center. He doesn’t have an attorney listed in online court records and did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Scott Shellenberger, Baltimore County’s state’s attorney, said this is the first time his office has prosecuted a case related to AI, and one of the first his office could find in the country . State lawmakers will need to update criminal statutes to include the new technology next legislative session, he said.

In the charging documents, law enforcement explained that “The audio clip…had profound repercussions,” noting that it “led to Eiswert’s temporary removal from the school” and “triggered a wave of hate-filled messages on social media and numerous calls to the school.”

The recording included racist and antisemitic remarks about black teachers and students, along with Jewish parents.

The voice refers to “ungrateful Black kids who can’t test their way out of a paper bag” and questions how hard it is to get those students to meet grade-level expectations. The speaker uses names of people who appear to be staff members and says they should not have been hired, and that he should get rid of another person “one way or another.”

“And if I have to get one more complaint from one more Jew in this community, I’m going to join the other side,” the voice said.

The principal is still employed by the district but will not be returning to his position at Pikesville High School.

It is believed that Darien made the recording as retaliation against Eiswert for initiating an investigation into suspicious payments he made to another coach who also happened to be his roommate. Law enforcement has accused him of authorizing a $1,916 payment to the other coach, falsely claiming he was an assistant girls' soccer coach. The authorities are charging him with theft and retaliating against a witness.

After the false recording was made public, law enforcement began to investigate the matter amid suspicions that it was not authentic.

Questions about the audio’s authenticity quickly followed. Police wrote in charging documents that Darien had accessed the school’s network on multiple occasions in December and January searching for OpenAI tools, and used “Large Language Models” that practice “deep learning, which involves pulling in vast amounts of data from various sources on the internet, can recognize text inputted by the user, and produce conversational results.” They also connected Darien to an email account that had distributed the recording.

The recording was sent to three teachers before it was rapidly disseminated among others in the community.

Police say the clip was received by three teachers the night before it went viral. The first was Darien; a third said she received the email and then got a call from Darien and teacher Shaena Ravenell telling her to check her email. Ravenell told police that she had forwarded the email to a student’s cell phone, “who she knew would rapidly spread the message around various social media outlets and throughout the school,” and also sent it to the media and the NAACP, police said.

This case is one of possibly many that could arise due to the advent of artificial intelligence technology. Concerns have already been raised about the possible weaponization of AI to target others. It underscores the necessity for safeguards against malevolent actors who would use this technology to advance their own interests by deceiving the public.