The trial has begun of a Democratic political consultant who has admitted to sending artificial intelligence (AI) generated robocalls mimicking President Biden ahead of the 2024 New Hampshire primary.

Steve Kramer faces a $6 million fine and more than two dozen criminal charges after he hired a magician to create a deepfake of President Biden urging New Hampshire voters not to participate in the primary.

The fines, proposed by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), are the first involving AI technology.

Former president Joe Biden speaks on the phone during a National Small Business Week event in the Rose Garden of the White House in Washington, DC, on May 1, 2023, left. Steve Kramer, right, who admitted to sending artificial intelligence (AI) generated robocalls mimicking President Biden ahead of the 2024 New Hampshire primary. ( BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP via Getty Images, left, AP Photo, right.)

Kramer previously told local outlet News 9 he produced the phone calls as a stunt to demonstrate the need to regulate AI technology.

“Maybe I’m a villain today, but I think, in the end, we get a better country and better democracy because of what I’ve done, deliberately,” Kramer previously said of the investigation.

Kramer, a get-out-the-vote specialist, worked on ballot access for the campaign of former Democratic presidential hopeful Rep. Dean Phillips of Minnesota and also worked on Kanye West’s unsuccessful 2020 presidential campaign. Phillips has distanced himself from Kramer, who has said he acted alone.

Paul Carpenter, a magician from New Orleans, came forward and said he had made the deepfake for $1 and that Kramer had paid him $150 to do it, according to an NBC report. 

“I created the audio used in the robocall. I did not distribute it,” Carpenter told NBC. “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.

New Hampshire Attorney General John Formella describes the investigation into robocalls that used artificial intelligence to mimic President Joe Biden’s voice and discourage people from voting in New Hampshire’s 2024 primary. (Amanda Gokee/The Boston Globe via AP)

Following the revelations, New Hampshire Attorney General John Formella announced an investigation into the calls.

Formella said investigators had identified the Texas-based Life Corp. as the source of the calls and that the calls were transmitted by another Texas-based company, Lingo Telecom.

Lingo Telecom said it strongly disagrees with the FCC’s action, which it called an attempt to impose new rules retroactively.

“Lingo Telecom takes its regulatory obligations extremely seriously and has fully cooperated with federal and state agencies to assist with identifying the parties responsible for originating the New Hampshire robocall campaign,” the company said. 

“Lingo Telecom was not involved whatsoever in the production of these calls and the actions it took complied with all applicable federal regulations and industry standards.”

Fox News’ Danielle Wallace and Greg Norman as well as The Associated Press contributed to this report.