A US high school principal was embroiled in a legal battle against accusations of racism and anti-Semitism following the release of a fake audio clip that caused a wave of outrage and renewed concerns about AI manipulation.

Authorities claimed that the recording of principal Eric Eiswert yelling at Jews and “ungrateful Black kids” went viral in January and was produced by a disgruntled employee of the Maryland school using artificial intelligence.

The video, which caused Pikesville High School administrators to receive a barrage of irate messages and threats, highlights how easily accessible artificial intelligence and editing tools can be abused to impersonate both common people and celebrities.

Amidst a year marked by significant elections across the globe, including the US, the episode also highlights the dangers of realistic deepfakes while the legal system catches up.

“You need one image to put a person into a video, you need 30 seconds of audio to clone somebody’s voice,” Hany Farid, a digital forensics expert at the University of California, Berkeley, told AFP.

“There’s almost nothing you can do unless you hide under a rock. The threat vector has gone from the Joe Bidens and the Taylor Swifts of the world to high school principals, 15-year-olds, reporters, lawyers, bosses, grandmothers. Everybody is now vulnerable.”

After the official probe, the school’s athletic director, Dazhon Darien, 31, was arrested late last month over the clip.

According to charging documents, Pikesville High School staff members felt insecure when the audio surfaced. Teachers worried the campus was bugged with recording devices while abusive messages lit up Eiswert’s social media.

The “world would be a better place if you were on the other side of the dirt,” one X user wrote to Eiswert.