Albuquerque Journal

AI-generated robocall impersonat­es Biden in NH

- BY ALI SWENSON AND WILL WEISSERT

The New Hampshire attorney general’s office on Monday said it was investigat­ing reports of an apparent robocall that used artificial intelligen­ce to mimic President Joe Biden’s voice and discourage voters in the state from coming to the polls during Tuesday’s primary election.

Attorney General John Formella said the recorded message, which was sent to multiple voters on Sunday, appears to be an illegal attempt to disrupt and suppress voting. He said voters “should disregard the contents of this message entirely.”

A recording of the call reviewed by The Associated Press generates a voice similar to Biden’s and employs his oftenused phrase, “What a bunch of malarkey.” It then tells the listener to “save your vote for the November election.”

“Voting this Tuesday only enables the Republican­s in their quest to elect Donald Trump again,” the voice mimicking Biden says. “Your vote makes a difference in November, not this Tuesday.”

It is not true that voting in Tuesday’s primary precludes voters from casting a ballot in November’s general election.

Biden is not campaignin­g in New Hampshire and his name will not appear on Tuesday’s primary ballot after he elevated South Carolina to the lead-off position for the Democratic primaries, but his allies are running a write-in campaign for him in the state.

It’s not known who is behind the calls, though they falsely showed up to recipients as coming from the personal cellphone number of Kathy Sullivan, a former state Democratic Party chair who helps run Granite for America, a super-PAC supporting the Biden writein campaign.

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