Lt. Governor Micah Beckwith responds to AI deepfake video allegations

​INDIANAPOLIS -- Lt. Governor Micah Beckwith (R-Indiana) said his office is considering whether to pursue legal action against a former staffer of his who alleges that an AI pornographic deepfake video was shown by other staffers in the office this past April.




"We are certainly, you know, we haven't ruled it out if there is something that we do see where we can, you know, say, 'hey, this deserves a pretty hefty slap on the wrist' and then maybe we'll move forward with it," Lt. Gov. Beckwith said.




Beckwith said he found out about the allegations at the beginning of August and spent the next day and a half conducting interviews with staff members allegedly involved.




"As I started going down this process, there was nothing there, and I realized, do we have a video? Does anyone have-no, there's no video," Beckwith said. "I couldn't find a video. I couldn't find anyone who's ever seen the video, and I quickly realized, okay, this has really got all the characteristics of a witch hunt."




The Lt. Governor's Office confirmed it did not use any kind of forensic auditing software to check for deleted videos on employees' cell phones and computers during its internal investigation. Lt. Gov. Beckwith also said his office did not bring in a cybersecurity expert to conduct an independent forensic audit.




"We didn't bring in a third party out to come in and do an investigation, and here's why: because the principle of the matter to me is I'm not going to let one allegation from one person dictate what we do in the office," Beckwith said. "I'm not going to set the precedent that all someone has to do is make up a baseless claim, and then we have to spend taxpayer resources, spend our time, put everything on hold in our office to then go through some kind of third-party investigation."




State Rep. Craig Haggard (R-Indianapolis), who said his wife was supposedly the individual shown in the alleged AI deepfake video, said he still thinks there should be a complete investigation into the alleged incident.




"If I was running that office, and that sort of thing happened, I think I would bring in an individual," State Rep. Haggard said. "I'd love to move on too, but I want to move on when every avenue has been exhausted to make sure this doesn't exist."




This comes as the Marion County Prosecutor's Office is investigating the allegations.




"They haven't reached out to me directly, but even if they did, I would certainly be willing to talk with them," Beckwith said. "I've always said if this ever did happen in my office, people would get fired immediately. We're not going to put up with that, and we're not going to allow that to happen, but I'm also not going to be pushed into just randomly firing people on my team if you can't prove anything."




FOX59/CBS4 reached out to the former staffer who worked for the Lt. Governor's Office, who came forward with the allegations for comment. They declined to be interviewed at this time.



via: https://fox59.com/news/politics/lt-governor-micah-beckwith-responds-to-ai-deepfake-video-allegations/