Magician claims he helped fake Biden’s voice for N.H. robocall
The news broke on the eve of New Hampshire’s presidential primary: Someone, somewhere, had used artificial intelligence to mimic the voice of a leading candidate to suppress voter turnout among his supporters.
Thousands of New Hampshire voters received calls with an audio message urging them to “save” their vote for the general election in November rather than participate in the state’s Democratic primary on Jan. 23. The voice sounded an awful lot like President Biden, but it wasn’t him. The calls were “spoofed” to look as if they were coming from the personal cellphone number of Kathy Sullivan, a former state Democratic Party chair who helps run Granite for America, a super PAC that supported the Biden write-in campaign.
Biden’s supporters slammed the call as “outright election interference” and authorities agreed. New Hampshire Attorney General John M. Formella immediately said the messages “appear to be an unlawful attempt to disrupt the New Hampshire presidential primary election and to suppress New Hampshire voters.” His office and other agencies launched an investigation and quickly linked the call to two Texas companies.
On Friday, a New Orleansbased magician stepped forward to take responsibility for creating — but not distributing — the audio recording. He told the Associated Press he was surprised to learn the audio was used to discourage people from voting.
A spokesperson for Formella said Monday that he has no additional updates to share at this time.
“Our investigation remains active and ongoing,” the spokesperson said.
Here’s what we know so far about key questions:
Who produced the deepfake Biden audio?
Paul Carpenter, a magician in New Orleans, said he was hired in January to create, but not distribute, the audio used in the robocall, NBC News reported Friday. Carpenter reportedly shared the complete audio file and said he used an AI voice generator from Eleven Labs to make it.
Carpenter reportedly said he thought his client, a longtime political operative, was working for the people whose voices he was asked to imitate. He told the Associated Press he was surprised to learn the audio was used to discourage people from voting.
“I created the gun,” he said. “I didn’t shoot it.”
In his interview with the AP, Carpenter described himself as a transient “digital nomad” who travels by motorcycle with his long-haired dachshund, Moose, which he called a “psychiatric support animal” helping him cope with the trauma of having been hit by gunfire several years ago. He also travels with a laptop and other electronic equipment he uses to create social media content and projects.
Carpenter said he does closeup magic tricks — including illusions in which he seems to bend spoons and forks at will — on the streets and at conventions. He told NBC that he holds world records in fork-bending and straitjacket escapes.
Who commissioned the audio to be produced?
Steve Kramer, the political consultant who Carpenter said hired him to produce the audio, acknowledged his involvement, NBC News reported Sunday. He expressed no remorse and claimed the hoax was a targeted act of civil disobedience to demonstrate AI’s political risks.
Kramer reportedly said he came up with the idea all on his own, and his recent consulting work for long shot Democratic presidential candidate Representative Dean Phillips of Minnesota had nothing to do with it.
Carpenter said he met Kramer last year through mutual acquaintances and said Kramer initially hired him to make AI audio using the faked voice of Republican Senator Lindsey Graham before he hired him to make the Biden audio.
Carpenter told the AP he thought Kramer worked for the Biden campaign and said the job was pitched to him as a possible time- and cost-saving measure, eliminating the need for the president to go to a recording studio.
How is the Dean Phillips campaign responding?
A spokesperson for the Phillips campaign acknowledged having hired Kramer in January to collect signatures for ballot access efforts in New York and Pennsylvania, but the spokesperson denied any involvement in the New Hampshire voter suppression scandal.
“If it is true that Mr. Kramer had any involvement in the creation of deepfake robocalls, he did so of his own volition which had nothing to do with our campaign,” spokesperson Katie Dolan said in a statement to The Boston Globe. “The fundamental notion of our campaign is the importance of competition, choice, and democracy. We are disgusted to learn that Mr. Kramer is allegedly behind this call, and if the allegations are true, we absolutely denounce his actions.”
Who distributed the message through robocalls?
Formella announced Feb. 6 that investigators traced the calls back to Walter Monk’s Life Corporation in Texas and the service provider Lingo Telecom. He said the state was still working to identify others who could be responsible.
In its cease-and-desist letter, the Federal Communications Commission said Life Corporation and Lingo Telecom have been in hot water before, including 61 instances in which Lingo was identified as “the gateway provider” for suspected illegal calls originating overseas.
Texas Monthly reported that Monk is “a serial company founder with a dizzying scope of work,” from hotlines for dating and psychic readings, to political polling.
In a statement to NBC News, Kramer confirmed that he hired Life Corporation as a telemarketer to distribute the calls.