The AI advised the coaching staff both ahead of, and during, the relegation six-pointer.
Wingate and Finchley have seen the first results of their move to incorporate artificial intelligence into the coaching set-up after a 1-1 draw in the Isthmian League Premier Division.
Earlier in the year, the north London side announced their decision to use the Amazon Echo system, and it debuted in the relegation clash against Whitehawk FC.
And with the home side snatching a point with a late goal in the seventh tier fixture, the technology managed to make an unbeaten start.
The AI is the result of a partnership between the club and The Big Bang Fair to inspire more young people to consider careers in science, technology, engineering and maths (Stem).
It was provided with information on Wingate and Finchley’s players as well as their opposition ahead of the game, and as a result recommended a 4-3-3 formation.
The technology, which is designed to evolve its thinking over the course of the season, has been assisting on the training ground and was also present in the dugout during the match.
Interim manager Dave Norman said ahead of the match that it will be up to the humans to decide whether or not to take the AI’s advice, but seemed pleased with the results after its first outing.
“Over the last few weeks the AI has been a really useful aid for the coaches at the club,” he said. “With today’s draw, it can now claim to be an unbeaten coach.”
Wingate and Finchley currently sit just four points above the bottom-placed side in the division, but crucially have a couple of games in hand. Could technology save them from relegation?
A high school athletic director in Maryland has been accused of using artificial intelligence to impersonate a principal on an audio recording that included racist and antisemitic comments, authorities said Thursday.
Authorities said the case appears to be among the first of its kind in the country and called for new laws to guard against the technology. Experts also warned that artificial intelligence is becoming increasingly powerful, while the ability to detect it may lag behind without more resources.
Dazhon Darien faked the voice of Pikesville High School's principal in response to conversations the men had about Darien's poor work performance and whether his contract would be renewed, Baltimore County police said.
Concerns included allegations that Darien paid his roommate $1,900 in school funds under the false pretense of coaching the girls soccer team, police said.
Darien forged an audio clip in which it sounded as if the principal was frustrated with Black students and their test-taking abilities, police wrote in charging documents. They said the recording also purported to capture the principal disparaging Jewish individuals and two teachers.
The audio clip quickly spread on social media and had “profound repercussions,” the court documents stated, with the principal being placed on leave. The recording put the principal and his family at “significant risk,” while police officers provided security at his house, according to authorities.
The recording also triggered a wave of hate-filled messages on social media and an inundation of phone calls to the school, police said. Activities were disrupted for a time, and some staff felt unsafe.
“Teachers have expressed fears that recording devices could have been planted in various places in the school,” the charging documents stated.
Darien, 31, faces charges that include theft, disrupting school activities, stalking and retaliating against a witness, according to court documents.
Scott Shellenberger, the Baltimore County state's attorney, said the case appears to be one of the first of its kind nationwide involving artificial intelligence that his office was able to find. He said Maryland's Legislature may need to update state laws to catch up with the nefarious possibilities of the new technology.
For example, the charge of disrupting school activities “only carries a 6-month sentence,” Shellenberger said.
“But we also need to take a broader look at how this technology can be used and abused to harm other people,” the prosecutor said.
Baltimore County detectives had asked experts to analyze the recording made by Darien, according to the charges against him.
A professor from the University of Colorado-Denver told police that it “contained traces of AI-generated content with human editing after the fact, which added background noises for realism,” court records stated.
A second opinion from a professor at the University of California-Berkley told police that “multiple recordings were spliced together,” according to the records.
A Baltimore County detective found that Darien had used Large Language Models, such as OpenAI and Bingchat, which can "tell users what steps to take to create synthetic media," court documents stated.
Online court records for Darien show that he posted $5,000 bond on Thursday. The records did not list an attorney who might be able to speak on his behalf.
Darien was arrested Wednesday evening before he was to board a plane at Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport, Baltimore County Police Chief Robert McCullough said. Darien was stopped because of how he had packaged his firearm for the flight, leading officers to learn he had a warrant for his arrest, according to McCullough.
McCullough said authorities had entered the warrant for Darien's arrest into the system on Wednesday night with plans to serve it Thursday morning. The chief said he didn't know why Darien was catching a flight to Houston and did not suggest that he was trying to escape.
The Baltimore County school system is recommending Darien's termination, superintendent Myriam Rogers said Thursday.
Meanwhile, artificial intelligence is becoming increasingly powerful and yet “very easy to use,” said Siwei Lyu, director of a media forensics lab at the University at Buffalo.
“You can basically upload any subject’s voice up to this platform,” Lyu told The Associated Press on Thursday. “And then you can give it text and you can start creating voices of that person.”
A recording of someone talking for a minute or two can be gleaned from social media and used to recreate someone’s voice, Lyu said, noting that it’s not always perfect.
Lyu’s research focuses on identifying AI-generated voices and images. He said the models are becoming more powerful, while detection methods are trying to catch up.
“It’s kind of like a perpetual cat-and-mouse game,” Lyu said. “But if I project the speed of development based on today’s situation, detection will lag behind because we have less resources and are not getting as much attention as the generative side.”
This undated photo shows the The Pikesville High School sign on the school property. Baltimore County Police Chief Robert McCullough and other local officials speak at a news conference in Towson, Maryland, on Thursday, April 25, 2024. The officials discussed the arrest of a high school athletic director on charges that he used artificial intelligence to impersonate a principal on an audio recording that included racist and antisemitic comments. (Lloyd Fox/The Baltimore Sun via AP)
Baltimore County Police Chief Robert McCullough and other local officials speak at a news conference in Towson, Maryland, on Thursday April 25, 2024. The officials discussed the arrest of a high school athletic director on charges that he used artificial intelligence to impersonate a principal on an audio recording that included racist and antisemitic comments. (Kim Hairston/The Baltimore Sun via AP)
