Cancel culture has destroyed careers.
People can lose their livelihoods over one misstep.
And a principal almost lost his job over one hoax that will leave you speechless.
Hollywood actor Jussie Smollett pulled off one of the worst hoaxes seen in recent memory.
The actor claimed that Donald Trump supporters in Downtown Chicago randomly attacked him in the middle of the night in below-zero temperatures because he was black and gay.
The hoax was exposed, and Smollett ended up getting sentenced to jail time.
Unfortunately, such hoaxes are more common than they should be.
A principal in Baltimore almost lost his career because of one such hoax.
Next-level hoax
Eric Eiswert got caught on tape making anti-black and antisemitic remarks.
There was just one problem: the recording was fake.
The recording was made using artificial intelligence.
Eiswert was pilloried by local media until an investigation determined that the recording was AI.
Experts at the FBI and UC-Berkeley confirmed the audio was fake.
The man who created the recording was Dazhon Darien, the school’s athletic director.
Baltimore County Police Chief Robert McCullough said during a press conference, “Through their investigation, detectives alleged Mr. Darien, who was the athletic director at the high school, made the recording to retaliate against the principal who had launched an investigation into the potential mishandling of school funds. Baltimore County detectives obtained an arrest warrant for 31-year-old Dazhon Darien. . .Officers with the Maryland Transportation Authority took Mr. Darien entered into custody this morning at BWI Thurgood Marshall airport, as he was attempting to board a flight. Mr. Darien was stopped due to the method in which his declared firearm was packaged. When officers looked into his background, they learned he had an open arrest warrant. Officers with the Baltimore County Police Department took custody of Mr. Darien a short time later. He currently faces several charges, including stalking, theft, disruption of school operations, and retaliation against a witness.”
Darien allegedly paid his roommate $1,916 in school funds for serving as the junior varsity assistant soccer coach for the girls’ team, but she never served in that role.
Brave New World
Hoaxes like this are just one example of the dangers of AI.
Something terrible could have happened to Eiswert before his name was cleared, and he still had to go through the trauma of being smeared as a racist.
There are probably some that still believe the rant was real.
The problem will get even thornier once AI gets better and more convincing.
Deep fakes of realistic AI-generated images of celebrities are already dominating the internet.
And just like in this situation, the damage is done by the time the truth comes out.
Not even Taylor Swift is immune in this Brave New World as AI-generated images of her recently went viral on Twitter.
Stay tuned to Blue State Blues for any updates to this ongoing story.
