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In January 2024, a political consultant commissioned a deepfake robocall using AI-generated audio to impersonate President Joe Biden. The call, which targeted New Hampshire voters ahead of the primary, falsely urged Democrats to skip the election. The incident led to criminal indictments for voter suppression and significant regulatory fines from the FCC, marking a notable instance of AI-enabled election interference.
A robocall imitating President Biden's voice urged New Hampshire Democrats to skip the 2024 primary, falsely claiming their votes mattered more in November. Investigators with the New Hampshire Attorney General's Office, along with other state AGs, the Industry Traceback Group, and the FCC determined that political consultant Steve Kramer hired Paul Carpenter to create the deepfake, which was distributed by Walter Monk's company, Life Corporation. Rep. Dean Phillips, who employed Kramer, has distanced himself from the incident. Kathy Sullivan, the former New Hampshire Democratic Party chair, was falsely impersonated in the caller ID data used for the robocalls.
Domain classification, causal taxonomy, severity scores, and national security assessments were LLM-classified and may contain errors.
Using AI systems to conduct large-scale disinformation campaigns, malicious surveillance, or targeted and sophisticated automated censorship and propaganda, with the aim of manipulating political processes, public opinion, and behavior.
Also classified as
The robocall generated and spread false information regarding voting rules, claiming that voting in the primary would invalidate votes in the general election.
The incident involved a coordinated campaign using AI-generated deepfake audio to spread disinformation at scale, targeting thousands of voters to influence a political process.
Human
Due to a decision or action made by humans
Intentional
Due to an expected outcome from pursuing a goal
Post-deployment
Occurring after the AI model has been trained and deployed
The incident was directly caused by the intentional actions of humans (Steve Kramer and Paul Carpenter) who used a deployed AI system to generate deceptive audio for a political campaign.
Added categories peak at 2: Minor (Epistemic Harm, Direct)
A political consultant commissioned an AI-generated deepfake audio robocall impersonating President Joe Biden to suppress voter turnout in the 2024 New Hampshire primary. This incident represents a notable escalation in AI-enabled election interference and information operations targeting democratic processes, though it was quickly identified and prosecuted.
The ElevenLabs voice cloning software was used strictly as a tool by Paul Carpenter to generate a specific audio file based on a script provided by Steve Kramer. The AI system did not exhibit autonomous decision-making, planning, or interactive assistant behaviors.
Risk Level 3: Limited Risk. The system was used to generate a deepfake, which falls under the category of AI-generated content requiring specific transparency obligations under the EU AI Act.
The ElevenLabs platform was used specifically to clone and generate a synthetic audio recording of Joe Biden's voice from a text script.
The reports provide highly detailed, consistent, and verified accounts of the incident, including admissions from the orchestrator (Steve Kramer) and the creator (Paul Carpenter), as well as official statements and legal filings from the FCC and the New Hampshire Attorney General.
Steve Kramer claimed the robocall was an act of civil disobedience to raise awareness about AI dangers, though prosecutors and plaintiffs interpreted it as a malicious attempt at voter suppression.
Technology
Rapid Voice Cloning Tech
ElevenLabs cloned Biden's voice in under 20 minutes for only 1 dollar.
Accessible Generative AI
Synthesizing highly realistic audio requires no specialized technical skills.
Data Inputs
Abundant Public Voice Data
Decades of public speech data enabled highly accurate voice cloning.
Voter Phone List Availability
Target phone numbers were easily purchased from commercial data brokers.
Human Factors
Deceptive Intent of Consultant
Kramer deliberately planned the fake robocall to mislead voters.
Uncritical Creator Compliance
Carpenter created the deepfake for money without verifying authorization.
Process and Methods
Weak AI Platform Guardrails
ElevenLabs failed to prevent unauthorized voice cloning prior to creation.
Lax Caller ID Authentication
Lingo Telecom gave high attestation without verifying caller ownership.
Management
Lack of Campaign Oversight
The candidate's campaign failed to oversee independent contractor actions.
Reactive Account Moderation
AI platform relied on banning accounts after the incident had occurred.
Regulatory Environment
Lagging AI Legislation
Federal laws and Congress failed to keep pace with generative AI advancement.
Vague Telecom KYC Standards
FCC lacked clear, enforceable standards for authenticating caller identities.
AI system involved
Identified by automated extraction; can differ from the alleged developers above.
