New Hampshire has reportedly identified where the deepfaked audio of US President Joe Biden telling residents to not attend the Democrat primary came from.
New Hampshire Attorney General John Formella, in a press conference on Tuesday, linked the AI deepfakes to two businesses in Texas: Life Corporation and Lingo Telecom.
The state has identified one Walter Monk, who currently resides in Arlington, as the owner of Life Corporation.
Formella said the state government has already sent a cease-and-desist letter to Life Corporation and has "opened a criminal investigation" to involved parties.
Lingo Telecom has already terminated all of its services with Life Corporation, Reuters reported.
Texas, a Republican-led state, has been at odds with the Biden administration following its dispute over the current government's border policies.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott previously ordered the Border Patrol to put wires on its southern border to prevent illegal immigrants from entering the US, a decision contradicted by Biden.
Also Read: Deepfake Audio of Biden Tells Democrats Not to Vote, Alarms Watchdogs
Election Deepfakes Alarm Experts, Politicians
With the 2024 Elections only a few months away, politicians and experts have been ringing the alarm on the potential dangers posed by AI deepfakes to voters' decisions on November.
Experts noted that more AI-powered disinformation may soon be seen online as top candidates aim to collect votes from swing states. New Hampshire was among critical swing states for both Democrats and Republicans.
New Jersey Rep. Frank Pallone, a Democrat, has recently urged Congress to impose stricter regulations against deepfakes and AI calls to prevent similar incidents from happening again.
It is worth noting that Pallone has confirmed to be running again on New Jersey's 6th congressional district.
Related Article: Democrats Push for Gov't Crack Downs on Deepfakes, AI Robocalls
Precautions Against More Deepfakes
ElevenLabs, the AI software used to generate the Biden deepfakes, has already clarified that it has become "dedicated to preventing the misuse of audio AI tools."
Other AI firms have also started to curb bad actors from using its technology for political gains.
Most notable was OpenAI, the creator of ChatGPT and DALL-E, promising to remove all chatbots and AI-generated pictures depicting or imitating real-life people, including politicians.
