A New Orleans street magician was arrested Friday by a Democratic consultant who worked on Dean Phillips’ presidential campaign in what may be the first known attempt to use artificial intelligence to thwart him, authorities said. He said he hired him to create the audio. US elections.
Paul Carpenter, who specializes in card tricks and illusions, told The Associated Press that he was hired by Steve Kramer to use AI. imitate President Joe Biden’s voice For robocalls. He said he was surprised to later learn that the calls were used to dissuade people from voting for Biden in New Hampshire’s first national primary last month.
“I made the gun. I didn’t shoot it,” he said.
New Hampshire officials say a recorded message sent to thousands of voters two days before the Jan. 23 election violates the state’s voter suppression law. They issued cease and desist orders against: two companies in texas I believe they were involved. The first to report the connection with the Louisiana magician was NBC News.
A spokesman for Attorney General John Formella declined to comment Friday on whether law enforcement agencies were investigating Mr. Carpenter and Mr. Kramer, saying only that the investigation was continuing.
Phillips’ campaign denounced the phone call and Kramer’s actions, claiming that the $260,000 it paid Kramer in December and January was money to help him vote in New York and Pennsylvania.
“If it is true that Mr. Kramer was involved in the creation of deepfake robocalls, he did so of his own free will and has no connection to our campaign,” spokeswoman Katie Dolan said in an email. said in an emailed statement. “The fundamental concepts of our campaign are the importance of competition, choice, and democracy. We are disgusted to learn that Mr. Kramer is allegedly behind this call, and if the If the allegations are true, we categorically condemn his actions.”
In an email Friday, Mr. Kramer referred questions to his spokesperson, political consultant Hank Sheinkoff, who declined to comment.
Liz Purdy, a senior adviser to the Biden-Harris campaign in New Hampshire, said she supports efforts to hold those who seek to interfere with the election accountable and remains “highly vigilant” against the threat of disinformation. Stated.
In an interview with The Associated Press, Carpenter described himself as a temporary “digital nomad” who travels by motorcycle with his long-haired dachshund, Moose. He described the dog as a “psychiatric support animal” that helped him cope with the trauma of being shot during an altercation between acquaintances in New Orleans several years ago.
Carpenter said he performs close-up magic tricks on the streets and at gatherings, including the illusion of bending spoons and forks freely. He told NBC that he holds world records for fork bending and straitjacket escape.
He also travels with his well-worn laptop and other electronic equipment, which he uses to create social media content and projects related to digital assets known as NFTs (non-fungible tokens) .
Carpenter said he met Cramer last year through a mutual friend, and that Cramer initially hired Carpenter to create an AI voice using a fake voice for Republican Sen. He said he hired him to create the audio.
Carpenter said he believes Cramer works for the Biden campaign and that the job was offered to him as a time and cost-saving measure to avoid the candidate having to go to a recording studio.
“I had no knowledge of his involvement in any other presidential campaigns,” Carpenter said.
A screenshot Carpenter shared with NBC News and The Associated Press included a text in which Cramer said he emailed a script to Carpenter three days before the New Hampshire primary. Venmo transactions revealed an account in the same name that Mr. Kramer’s father used to pay Mr. Carpenter $150 on January 20, three days before the primary election.
Two days later, when news of the fake Biden robocall broke, text messages provided by Carpenter showed Cramer sending Carpenter a link to the article and a message saying, “Shhh!” It is shown.
“I immediately called and said, ‘Hey, what’s going on?'” Carpenter said in an interview with The Associated Press in New Orleans. He said Kramer downplayed the issue, but also said Carpenter should delete emails about the job.
“Hahaha. It’s okay. Don’t worry, just delete all the emails and act like nothing happened,” Carpenter said, describing his interaction with Kramer. “He told me, ‘Don’t worry, it will go away.’
Carpenter said he then learned a criminal investigation had been launched. That made him nervous, so he contacted an NBC reporter. He told the AP he has retained a lawyer and is considering legal action against Kramer.
Recorded robocalls were sent to between 5,000 and 25,000 voters. He used a voice similar to Biden’s, used the phrase Biden often uses, “What a disaster,” and falsely suggested that voting in the primary would prevent voters from voting in the general election in November.
biden won the Democratic primary In honor of South Carolina’s new lead in the Democratic primary, he was selected as a write-in candidate after removing his name from the ballot.
The call told the recipient it was from the personal cell phone number of Kathy Sullivan, a former state Democratic Party chair who helps run Granite for America, a super PAC that supported Biden’s write-in campaign. was incorrectly displayed as if it were.
Sullivan said in an email Friday that he didn’t know about Kramer until he read the NBC article, adding, “I have not received an apology from Dean Phillips for allowing a highly paid consultant to spoof my phone number.” ” he said.
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McGill reported from New Orleans.
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