The office of the Attorney General of New Hampshire is investigating calls in which unknown persons used an artificially generated version of the voice of the US President to convince Democrats to avoid voting in the presidential primaries on January 23.
"While the voice in the automated call resembled the voice of President Biden, this message appears to have been artificially created based on initial signs," the statement from the office said (via Ars Technica). "The recorded message appears to be an illegal attempt to disrupt the New Hampshire presidential primaries and suppress New Hampshire voters."
Biden's voice on the recording sounds somewhat strange, but it could have misled some people into thinking the call was real.
"What nonsense," the voice says. "You know the value of voting for Democrats when our votes are counted. It's important for you to save your vote for the elections in November. Voting this Tuesday only helps Republicans re-elect Donald Trump. Your vote matters in November, not this Tuesday."
The spokesperson for Trump's campaign, in a comment to NBC News, stated that they "have nothing to do with this." Biden's national campaign manager, Julie Chavez Rodriguez, said that their team is "actively discussing additional actions that need to be taken immediately."
Katie Dolan, press secretary for Dean Phillips' campaign from Minnesota, challenging Biden in the Democratic primary, said their team was not involved in creating the deepfake.
It is unknown who is behind the calls, although recipients were falsely shown that they were coming from the personal phone number of Katie Sullivan, the head of the Democratic Party in New Hampshire. It is also unclear how many people received the call, but Sullivan's spokesperson mentioned at least ten Democrats. At the same time, according to the Nomorobo program estimated, which is used to combat robocalls, calls were made 5000 to 25,000 times, CNN reports.
During the primaries in New Hampshire, voters from both major parties choose a candidate to represent them in this year's general election. Despite Biden's name not being listed on the ballot for the primary vote in New Hampshire, there is a "write-in" campaign supporting him in the Democratic Party primaries.
Political experts, meanwhile, express concern that deepfakes could become even more widespread in the current election season. Last year, the National Republican Committee used this technology to create videos with images of doomsday scenarios after Biden announced his candidacy for reelection. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis also published fake images of former US President Donald Trump, his political rival, with Dr. Anthony Fauci, a former health official.
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