MINNESOTA, USA — Minnesota Congressman Dean Phillips' campaign for president is denouncing a former political consultant allegedly tied to deepfake AI-generated phone calls impersonating President Joe Biden ahead of the New Hampshire primary.
NBC News spoke to New Orleans-based magician Paul Carpenter, who said he was hired by a political consultant to create AI-generated impersonations of the president used for robocalls urging voters not to cast a ballot in the January primary. Carpenter showed NBC messages, call logs and Venmo transactions from the consultant, who was working for Dean Phillips' presidential campaign at the time.
"He had the receipts so to speak," said reporter Alex Seitz-Wald, who also flew to New Orleans to speak with Carpenter and see a demonstration of how quickly he used audio software to allegedly create the deep-fake. "I was very surprised by how easy this was. This is easy, accessible technology that anybody can have access to with very little time and very little money, but potentially have a big impact in an election."
Both Seitz-Wald and NBC News said they have no evidence that the Phillips campaign directed the operative to produce the robocall, and that Phillips himself "expressed outrage" and may consider legal action.
“If it is true that (he) had any involvement in the creation of deepfake robocalls, he did so of his own volition which had nothing to do with our campaign,” Phillips' press secretary Katie Dolan told NBC News. “The fundamental notion of our campaign is the importance of competition, choice, and democracy. We are disgusted to learn that (he) is allegedly behind this call, and if the allegations are true, we absolutely denounce his actions.”
The Phillips campaign told NBC its relationship with the consultant ended weeks ago after completing work to gather signatures to get Phillips on the ballot in certain states.
Seitz-Wald said the operative at the center of the allegations, Steve Kramer, is saying very little so far.
"He completely said nothing for the first 48 hours and then said - only cryptically so far - that he will reveal his side of the story Saturday, or sometime soon," said Sietz-Wald, who added that federal and New Hampshire state officials are still investigating. "This area of the law is so new and untested because this is the first, known example of a deep fake being used maliciously in an American campaign, so it's kind of unclear what laws were broken here."
Threats posed by AI deep fakes
Al Tompkins, a national consultant who has been educating journalists about the emerging threats of AI and deep fake technology in the upcoming election, says recently passed laws will likely struggle to keep pace.
"They're probably well intentioned, but ultimately, probably toothless," Tompkins said. "I'm not looking to the government to save us from anything here. What will happen is these kinds of things will just move off-shore or they will be launched by people not associated with a campaign."
Tompkins used the same audio software allegedly used by Carpenter, to show KARE11 how quickly it could be used to clone a familiar voice.
"What I hear from everyday people when I show them this technology, is, 'Oh, I just don't believe anyone anymore.'" Tompkins said. "I hope that doesn't happen, because truth does matter and the fact of the matter is, you have to become a better consumer if you're going to be a full citizen. It starts with awareness. You have to be aware that this kind of thing is possible."
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