A New Orleans magician is behind the artificial intelligence used to impersonate President Joe Biden for a robocall sent to New Hampshire Democrats urging them not to vote in the primary. However, he said a consultant for a rival Democratic campaign paid him to do so.
Paul Carpenter told NBC News that Steve Kramer, who has worked on a ballot access campaign for Democratic presidential candidate Dean Phillips, hired him in January to use AI to imitate Biden’s voice. He shared text messages, call logs, and Venmo transactions with the outlet.
“I created the audio used in the robocall,” Carpenter said. “I did not distribute it. I was in a situation where someone offered me some money to do something, and I did it. There was no malicious intent. I didn’t know how it was going to be distributed.”
Creating the fake audio took less than 20 minutes and cost only $1, the magician said, but Kramer paid him $150, according to Venmo payments from Kramer and his father, Bruce.
Carpenter showed NBC News how he created the Biden audio through AI startup ElevenLabs, stating he came forward because he regrets his involvement in the scheme that has led to a multi-state investigation. The original audio shared with the outlet appeared to be a complete and higher-quality version of the robocall sent out to voters.
New Hampshire Attorney General John Formella announced a criminal investigation into Life Corp., a Texas-based telecommunications company allegedly behind the thousands of robocalls. Between 5,000 and 20,000 people received phone calls with a Biden impersonation generated by artificial intelligence that told them not to vote in the Granite State’s primary.
ElevenLabs announced shortly after the robocalls surfaced that it had suspended an account that created the Biden deepfake but did not provide the name of the account user, according to Bloomberg.
Kramer is a longtime political operative who has worked for dozens of campaigns working to get out the vote. He said in a statement to NBC News that he would wait to provide comment until an opinion piece is released on Saturday.
“My op-Ed will explain all,” Kramer said.
Carpenter said he believed Kramer was working for the people he was being asked to imitate and that the AI manipulations were approved by the campaigns. He said he had not heard of Phillips and was unaware of Kramer’s work for the congressman.
Kramer recruited Carpenter for three projects: two impersonating Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) and the third involving a deepfake of Biden telling New Hampshire voters not to turn out for the primary.
“Have AI voice project,” Kramer texted Carpenter on Sept. 27, 2023, according to text messages Carpenter shared. Kramer confirmed that was his phone number when reached for comment, the outlet reported. Kramer later sent Carpenter an audio sample of Graham’s voice and said he would send a “script for Prez poll to match w the aforementioned SC voice.”
In January, three days before the New Hampshire primary, Kramer texted Carpenter to let him know he emailed the magician a script. An account with the name Bruce Kramer paid Carpenter $150 in two transactions on Jan. 20. On Jan. 22, Steve Kramer texted Carpenter a link to an NBC News article saying “Shhhhhhh,” to which Carpenter replied, “Gtfooh,” an expression of astonishment meaning “get the f*** out of here.”
Carpenter told the outlet he followed Kramer’s request to delete their entire email correspondence, which he said included the scripts for the fake Biden robocall and other instructions.
The principal campaign committee for Phillips, Dean 24, Inc., spent several thousands of dollars on Kramer’s get-out-the-vote ballot access campaigns since December 2023. In January, the committee gave Kramer $17,620 twice for ballot access in Pennsylvania and $112,353 twice for ballot access in New York, according to Federal Election Commission records. The payments also went toward producing and distributing a robocall of Phillips’s voice, according to his campaign.
Phillips and his campaign expressed their outrage when asked by NBC News about Kramer’s alleged involvement. Both said they would never work with him again and that they may pursue legal action if the allegations against him are confirmed.
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Campaign officials also said there had been no communication with Kramer since late Thursday and that the relationship with him ended several weeks ago after he completed his contract to gather signatures to get Phillips on the ballot.
“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,” Phillips’s press secretary Katie Dolan said. “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.”
