Medium reported severity Investigation Opened

Slovakia: audio of a party leader and a journalist discussing vote rigging, which a ministry unit said showed signs of AI, spread before the 2023 election

Two days before Slovakia's parliamentary election of 30 September 2023, during the pre-election moratorium, an audio file presented as a phone call between Progressive Slovakia leader Michal Šimečka and Denník N journalist Monika Tódová spread on Facebook, Telegram, TikTok and chain e-mails. In it, the two voices discuss rigging the election in the party's favour. The director of the Interior Ministry's Centre for Countering Hybrid Threats told AFP that the ministry's evaluation found several signs that the recording was created with AI synthetic-voice algorithms trained on real people's voices, and other analysts consulted by AFP said it was an AI-made fake. A former member of parliament shared it as authentic, calling Šimečka a traitor and fraudster. Šimečka called it fake. Tódová filed a criminal complaint for defamation; according to Denník N, police first dismissed it, a prosecutor ordered an investigation, and in 2024 an investigator suspended the case because no suspect could be identified.

AI system: Unidentified voice-cloning tool
Occurred: 28 Sept 2023
Reported: 28 September 2023
Event location: Slovakia

What the AI did: Depicted or impersonated the person
Reported harm: Reputational Harm

Whose AI use: Someone else’s AI use
Setting: Public life · Justice

Evidence: AI involvement reported · Causal attribution supported · 2 sources; 7 claims: 1 corroborated, 6 reported. 3 open questions
People reported harmed: 2 people

AI system as recorded: Synthetic-voice (audio deepfake) generation imitating the voices of a party leader and a journalist, according to the Slovak Interior Ministry's Centre for Countering Hybrid Threats and analysts consulted by AFP (tool not identified)

What Happened

The recording. AFP Fakty reported on 28 September 2023, two days before the parliamentary election of 30 September, that thousands of social-media users had shared a two-minute, poor-quality audio file presented as a phone call between Michal Šimečka, leader of Progressive Slovakia, and Monika Tódová of Denník N. In it the two voices say the election will be rigged in the party's favour. AFP traced copies on Facebook, Telegram, TikTok and in chain e-mails; one Facebook post was shared more than 3,000 times before removal, and a former member of parliament posted it on 28 September as authentic, calling Šimečka a traitor and fraudster, in a post shared more than 2,200 times.

The AI attribution. Daniel Milo, then director of the Interior Ministry's Centre for Countering Hybrid Threats, told AFP that on the centre's evaluation the recording showed several signs of having been created with AI algorithms producing a synthetic voice trained on real people's voices, citing the tone, unnatural diction and word choice. Several other analysts consulted by AFP said it was an AI-made fake. AFP itself noted unnatural pauses. Šimečka called the recording fake and said opponents had made another fake with an AI voice. Denník N, Tódová's employer, called it a deepfake.

The complaint. Denník N reported in October 2024 that Tódová's complaint, addressed to the police in cooperation with the Ján Kuciak Investigative Centre and built on defamation and interference with others' rights, was the only known complaint to police. Police first dismissed it, saying the fake was obvious and too unconvincing to influence many voters; the district prosecutor disagreed and ordered an investigation. After almost a year an investigator suspended the prosecution because no suspect could be identified. Tódová's lawyers complained that the investigator had not questioned people close to the first accounts that spread the file or asked IT experts to examine its metadata. Who made the recording is unknown.

Reported harm

According to AFP Fakty and Denník N, a party leader and a journalist were falsely depicted, through imitated voices that the Interior Ministry's hybrid-threats centre said showed signs of AI generation, as plotting to rig an election; the file spread widely during the moratorium, a former MP presented it as genuine and called the leader a traitor, the leader denounced it, and the journalist filed a criminal complaint for defamation.

Outcome

Unknown

Tódová filed a criminal complaint through her lawyer on defamation grounds. According to Denník N (27 October 2024), the police first dismissed it after a few weeks, the Bratislava III district prosecutor ordered a proper investigation, and after almost a year an investigator suspended the prosecution because no specific person could be identified; Tódová filed a complaint against that decision. Later developments were not read for this review.

What remains unknown

Who made the recording and with which tool.
How the hybrid-threats centre and the analysts assessed the recording beyond the features they cite.
What happened to the journalist's complaint against the 2024 suspension; later reports were not read for this review.

What the evidence supports

AI involvement: reported. AFP Fakty quotes the director of the Slovak Interior Ministry's Centre for Countering Hybrid Threats saying that the centre's evaluation of this recording found several signs that it was created with AI algorithms producing a synthetic voice trained on real people's voices, citing tone, unnatural diction and word choice; several analysts consulted by AFP said the same on the basis of features of the recording. The generated voices of the party leader and the journalist were what spread as a supposed record of them plotting election fraud. The tool is not identified, and one expert said the file could alternatively have been spliced from other calls.

7 claims: 1 corroborated, 6 reported. What the statuses mean

Corroborated Shortly before Slovakia's 2023 parliamentary election, an audio file spread on social media in which the voices of the Progressive Slovakia leader and a Denník N journalist appear to discuss rigging the election.

Causal attribution. AFP observed the posts and file itself; Denník N reports the same file from its own position as the journalist's employer.

fakty.afp.com(opens in new tab) supports · Slovak
Len dva dni pred parlamentnými voľbami zdieľali tisíce slovenských používateľov sociálnych sietí podozrivý zvukový súbor, ktorý bol prezentovaný ako rozhovor medzi Michalom Šimečkom, predsedom Progresívneho Slovenska (PS), a Monikou Tódovou, novinárkou Denníka N. ... Na nahrávke hovoria, že voľby 30. septembra budú zmanipulované v prospech PS.
dennikn.sk(opens in new tab) supports · Slovak
Neznámy dezinformátor alebo dezinformátori vypustili tesne pred voľbami 2023 novú formu hoaxu, ktorý mal potenciál ovplyvniť výsledky hlasovania. Terčom takzvaného deepfaku – počítačom vyrobenej nahrávky – sa stali predseda PS Michal Šimečka a novinárka Denníka N Monika Tódová. V nahrávke zneli ich hlasy tak, akoby sa dohodovali o manipulácii volieb.

Reported The director of the Interior Ministry's Centre for Countering Hybrid Threats told AFP that the centre's evaluation found several signs that the recording was created with AI algorithms producing a synthetic voice trained on real people's voices, citing tone, unnatural diction and word choice.

Causal attribution. Government examining unit's assessment as quoted by AFP; its full method is not published.

fakty.afp.com(opens in new tab) supports · Slovak
Na základe nášho vyhodnotenia predmetná nahrávka vykazuje viaceré znaky, že je vytvorená umelou inteligenciou pomocou algoritmov umožňujúcich vytvorenie syntetického/umelého hlasu vytrénovaného na hlasoch reálnych osôb (tzv. audio deepfake) ... Preukazuje to tón hlasu, neprirodzená dikcia, výber slov a podobne.

Reported Several analysts consulted by AFP said, on the basis of several features of the recording, that it was a fake created with artificial intelligence and synthetic-voice technology.

Causal attribution. Expert assessments gathered by AFP; one expert said it could alternatively be spliced from other calls.

fakty.afp.com(opens in new tab) supports · Slovak
Viacerí analytici však pre agentúru AFP na základe hneď niekoľkých faktorov zvukového záznamu uviedli, že nahrávka je podvod vytvorený umelou inteligenciou a technológiou syntetického hlasu.

Reported A former member of parliament posted the recording on Facebook on 28 September as authentic and called the party leader a traitor and fraudster, in a post shared more than 2,200 times; another Facebook post was shared more than 3,000 times before removal.

Causal attribution. AFP's observation of the posts.

fakty.afp.com(opens in new tab) supports · Slovak
bývalý poslanec strany Sme Rodina, ktorý ho 28. septembra zverejnil na svojom facebookovom účte. ... napísal v príspevku, ktorý nazbieral viac ako 2200 zdieľaní. ... Jeden z príspevkov na Facebooku bol zdieľaný viac ako 3 000-krát pred tým, ako bol odstránený.

Reported The party leader called the recording fake and said his opponents had made another fake video with an AI voice.

Causal attribution. Depicted person's own statement, relayed by AFP.

fakty.afp.com(opens in new tab) supports · Slovak
Naši súperi vytvorili ďalšie falošné video s hlasom od umelej inteligencie

Reported The journalist filed a criminal complaint through her lawyer on defamation and interference with others' rights; police first dismissed it, saying the fake was obvious and unconvincing, and the district prosecutor then ordered a proper investigation.

Causal attribution. Reported by the journalist's employer; the police and prosecutor decisions themselves were not read.

dennikn.sk(opens in new tab) supports · Slovak
Novinárkin advokát Tomáš Kamenec postavil trestné oznámenie na paragrafoch o ohováraní a poškodzovaní cudzích práv. ... Jej trestné oznámenie polícia prvýkrát odmietla už po pár týždňoch. Vyšetrovateľ síce uznal, že išlo o zjavný podvrh, podľa neho však bol málo presvedčivý, a teda nemohol ovplyvniť významnejšiu skupinu voličov. ... S postupom polície sa vtedy nestotožnil ani prokurátor Okresnej prokuratúry Bratislava III, ktorý vyšetrovateľom nariadil prípad riadne prešetriť.

Reported After almost a year, an investigator suspended the prosecution because no specific suspect could be identified, and the journalist filed a complaint against that decision.

Causal attribution. Reported by the journalist's employer.

dennikn.sk(opens in new tab) supports · Slovak
Vyšetrovateľka Okresného riaditeľstva Bratislava III prerušila trestné stíhanie s vysvetlením, že „sa nepodarilo zistiť skutočnosti oprávňujúce vykonať trestné stíhanie voči konkrétnej osobe“. ... Novinárka Tódová podala prostredníctvom advokátskej kancelárie Paul Q proti tomuto rozhodnutiu sťažnosť.

Sources

2 sources inspected. Sources that repeat one account do not corroborate each other.

AFP Fakty, 28 Sep 2023: Údajná nahrávka telefonátu predsedu PS a novinárky Denníka N vykazuje podľa expertov početné známky manipulácie(opens in new tab)
s1 · fakty.afp.com · Fact check · Slovak · Inspected · 28 September 2023 · Primary
Denník N, 27 Oct 2024: Polícia povedala, že nevie vypátrať autora deepfaku, ktorý sa snažil ovplyvniť voľby(opens in new tab)
s2 · dennikn.sk · News report · Slovak · Inspected

How the sources were read, and where the events happened

Read in Slovak by the research agent (an AI) on 2026-10-22 and translated by the research agent (an AI) into English; no human translator or reviewer was involved. AFP Fakty fact-check published 28 Sep 2023 21:51, updated 29 Apr 2024; direct fetch 403, read in full from an Internet Archive capture (web.archive.org/web/2024id_/). Applies to s1.

Read in Slovak by the research agent (an AI) on 2026-10-22 and translated by the research agent (an AI) into English; no human translator or reviewer was involved. Denník N report of 27 Oct 2024; Denník N employs the depicted journalist. Direct fetch 403, read in full from an Internet Archive capture (web.archive.org/web/2025id_/). Applies to s2.

Event countries: Slovakia. Affected-person countries: Slovakia. Court countries: Unknown.

AFP reports the file spread among Slovak social-media users before the Slovak parliamentary election, so the event country is Slovakia. The party leader leads a Slovak party and the journalist works for the Slovak daily Denník N and filed her complaint with Slovak police (Denník N), so both are placed in Slovakia. No court proceeding is reported.

Reviewed for publication 2026-10-22: Published as a core case (depicted_or_impersonated): the Slovak Interior Ministry's hybrid-threats centre, which evaluated the recording, said it showed signs of AI synthetic-voice generation, and the imitated voices of a party leader and a journalist were spread as a record of them plotting election fraud. The leader denounced it and the journalist filed a criminal complaint for defamation, which police later suspended for want of a suspect.

People described

Michal Šimečka, leader of the opposition party Progressive Slovakia, and Monika Tódová, a journalist at the daily Denník N, whose imitated voices were made to discuss rigging the 2023 parliamentary election

People reported harmed in this case

2 people

0 AI participants · 2 other people harmed

Two depicted people, the party leader and the journalist, each with a reported objection (the leader's public denial reported by AFP; the journalist's criminal complaint reported by Denník N). Voters who heard or shared the file are an audience and are not counted.

Counted once within this case. The same person may appear in other cases. This count does not establish AI causation.

Cite this case

Compiled per our published methodology: verification statuses, sourcing standards, and corrections process.

APA

NOPE. (2026). Slovakia: audio of a party leader and a journalist discussing vote rigging, which a ministry unit said showed signs of AI, spread before the 2023 election. AI incidents. https://nope.net/incidents/2023-slovakia-ai-voice-deepfake-of-party-leader-and-journalist-discussing-election-rigging-spread-during-moratorium

BibTeX

@misc{2023_slovakia_ai_voice_deepfake_of_party_leader_and_journalist_discussing_election_rigging_spread_during_moratorium,
  title = {Slovakia: audio of a party leader and a journalist discussing vote rigging, which a ministry unit said showed signs of AI, spread before the 2023 election},
  author = {NOPE},
  year = {2026},
  howpublished = {AI incidents},
  url = {https://nope.net/incidents/2023-slovakia-ai-voice-deepfake-of-party-leader-and-journalist-discussing-election-rigging-spread-during-moratorium}
}

Florida: judge suspended for sharing, as a 2024 candidate, a fabricated call of justices the judicial watchdog says was likely computer-manipulated or AI-made

While campaigning in 2024 for a Broward County court seat, Lauren Peffer, now a county judge, sought the endorsement of the South Florida Sun Sentinel editorial board. Asked to back her claim of an image crisis in Florida's judiciary, she cited a self-published book by a fired employee of the Ninth Judicial Circuit and supplied a recording purportedly of a phone call about the book between Chief Justice Carlos Muñiz, Justice Renatha Francis and the circuit's chief judge, Lisa Munyon. The Florida Judicial Qualifications Commission's notice of formal charges, filed in May 2025, said the recording was fabricated, likely using computer manipulation or generative AI, and that while the voices resembled those of the participants, the manner of speech, tone and much of the content were objectively unrealistic. The notice said she had shared it despite clear evidence of its inauthenticity and had perpetuated a false perception of illegal, unethical or immoral conduct by the justices, a chief judge and others in the judicial branch. Peffer apologised, said the content was created by a third party with whom she had no ties, and testified that she could not explain why she had thought it valid. According to Bloomberg Law, the Florida Supreme Court on 9 October 2026 suspended her for 30 days and fined her $10,000, saying her conduct undermined public confidence in the judiciary by implicating sitting justices; the two justices whose voices were faked recused. Who made the recording, and with what tool, is not reported.

Medium Unidentified voice-cloning tool

Baltimore County, Maryland: police say a high school's athletic director framed the principal as racist with an AI-cloned voice recording

Police in Baltimore County, Maryland, said in April 2024 that a high school principal had been framed as racist by a fake recording of his voice containing racist and antisemitic comments, which appeared in teachers' email inboxes and spread on social media. Court records cited by the Associated Press say an expert consulted by detectives found traces of AI-generated content with human editing; a second expert found spliced recordings and told AP he had not confirmed the clip was fully AI-generated. The principal went on leave while police guarded his house. The school's athletic director, investigated for using AI to make the recording in retaliation, entered an Alford plea, maintaining his innocence, and was sentenced in 2025 to four months for disturbing school operations, CBS Baltimore reports.

Low Unidentified video tool

Texas: State Rep. Vikki Goodwin, the Democratic candidate for lieutenant governor, filed a sworn complaint with the Travis County Sheriff's Office on 19 September 2026 alleging that two campaign ads posted on Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick's X account used AI-generated video of her saying things she never said; the posts were deleted the next day, her campaign says, and Patrick's campaign calls them obvious parody

On Saturday 19 September 2026 Vikki Goodwin, an Austin state representative running against Republican Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, filed a complaint with a notarised affidavit at the Travis County Sheriff's Office accusing Patrick of violating Texas's 2019 election deepfake law, after his campaign posted two ads (5 and 12 September, on his non-government X account) containing AI-generated videos of her. In the affidavit she stated: 'I did not personally do or say the things depicted in the video; although the "person" in the video appears to be me, it was not actually me', and that the video was posted 'with the intent to deceive Texans, injure a candidate, or influence the result of an election'. She told KUT the ads made it look as though she favoured raising taxes, which she says she opposes in every campaign speech. The sheriff's office confirmed receipt of the complaint without further comment. Patrick's campaign spokesman told the New York Times the material was 'an obvious parody produced to entertain' and that none of it was published within 30 days of the election; the posts were taken down the day after the complaint, according to Goodwin's communications director. Goodwin said she doubted the sheriff's office would follow up now that the posts were removed. A conviction under the law is a class A misdemeanour.

Low Unidentified voice-cloning tool

Phagwara, Punjab: after unrest at Lovely Professional University, a video of the local Superintendent of Police circulates with an AI-made voice saying a relative of the Union Home Minister was behind the violence; Punjab Police call it fake (CyberPeace dates a Kapurthala Police post to 29 September 2026) and a fact-checker finds the original footage

India TV reported on 30 September 2026 that, after violence at Lovely Professional University in Punjab, a video of Phagwara's Superintendent of Police went viral in which the officer's voice claims that a relative of the Union Home Minister was behind the violence and that a police team had gone to Delhi to find him. Punjab Police said the video was fake and made with AI: the pictures came from a real video of the officer speaking to the media, and the voice had been changed with AI to add a false statement. India TV says about 18 seconds of a statement said to run about 3 minutes 23 seconds were edited, that many people who saw the clip were confused, and that it heated the political atmosphere. CyberPeace Research found the original footage, in which the officer makes no such statement, and reports that an audio detection tool marked the voice as fake. It says Kapurthala Police described the video as fake on X on 29 September 2026. Who made the clip is not reported.

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