The AI clip that convinced – and divided – a Baltimore suburb

Because the clip was audio-only, it meant there were no visual giveaways, like robotic movements that normally reveal AI manipulation. It also mentioned jargon, like “grade-level expectations”, and other details, like staff names, that only people close to the school would know.

When you listen carefully, though, there are clear edits between sentences – and the voice, while similar to the principal, sounds quite monotonous. Artificial intelligence can use several minutes of a real recording – from, say, your favourite actor in a film or a presidential candidate giving a speech – to then generate a clip that makes it sound like they said something they never did.

But perhaps the biggest reason why people believed the video was real was because it felt true, Mr Malone told me.

It tapped into his own experiences of racism as a black man living in Baltimore.

When Mr Malone heard the principal describe black students as lazy, it immediately reminded him of slurs and discrimination he’d encountered at school and work.

Months later, the effects of the fake audio clip are still felt in Pikesville. Mr Eiswert has moved jobs and is working in another school. And even though some community members told me they now accept the video is fake, the damage is done.

“This is a Jewish neighbourhood and to say something that’s so inflammatory about the community was upsetting,” a woman called Sharon told me as she packed her grandchild’s pram into a car in a house opposite the high school last August.

For several minutes, Sharon talked to me as though the clip was real.

“I think when people say things like that, other people join in that and it makes me more fearful.”

When her husband chimed in from the car, reminding her the clip was actually fake, she admitted she did “find out later it was AI-generated”. But she said she was still angry about it.