The former athletic director, accused of using artificial intelligence to create racist, anti-Semitic audio clips, was accused of creating racist, anti-Semitic audio clips, impersonating the school's principal, according to prosecutors.
Former director Dazon Darien, 32, pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor and disturbing charge of school activities, according to the Baltimore County State Law Office. Darien previously faced additional charges, including theft, stalking and retaliation against witnesses.
Darien has signed Alford's plea for running an intrusive school, according to the Associated Press. This allows the defendant to remain innocent while pleading guilty.
Darien, former athletic director at Pikesville High School, produced an audio clip that includes rants about “an ungrateful black kids who can't get out of a paper bag” and lightly parsing comments about Jewish students. Police records show that Audio was an attempt to paint school principal Eric Icewort.
According to a statement of fact, Eiswart said he had “conversations” with Darien about his contract being renewed on the grounds that he “has poor performance at school, inadequately untraceable procedures and reluctant to follow the chain of command.” Darien's issue began in late 2023, leading to the release of audio, according to the statement.
The lawyers listed for Darien did not respond to calls or messages Tuesday. The Baltimore County Public Schools District declined to comment on the incident. Efforts to reach Mr. Eiswart on Tuesday failed.
After his sentence, Darien was reverted to federal custody as he faces accusations of sexually exploiting and receiving child pornography.
The manufactured recording, posted to Instagram in January 2024, quickly spread Baltimore County Public Schools, serving more than 100,000 students. Eiswart, who declined to comment while the district was investigating, has multiple threats to his safety, police said. He was also placed on administrative leave, the school district said.
According to police documents, Darien was dissatisfied with Eiswart in December after the principal began investigating him. Darien had allowed roommates to pay the district for $1,916, police said the roommate was “under the sham” as an assistant coach for the Pikesville Girls soccer team.
Soon after, police said Darien used the district's internet services to search for artificial intelligence tools, including Openai, the developers of ChatGPT chatbots, and Microsoft's Bing Chat.
(New York Times sued Openai and its partner Microsoft in December 2023 for copyright infringement of news content related to AI systems.)
The public defense attorney representing Darien declined to comment on the case.
It's never been easier to make realistic, manufactured videos, often called deepfakes. Many of these tools are common and can be found on smartphone apps, once using elaborate software to put one person's face on another. This gives some AI researchers an advantage in the dangers pose by technology.
