Prankster leaves 'lurid' message for Alex Jones with 'Tucker Carlson's' AI-generated voice

A prankster used an AI program mimicking Tucker Carlson's voice to leave a message for far-right conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, reported Newsweek on Friday.

"The fake call was made by Chris James, who goes by the name Prank Stallone online, and is due to be broadcast on his online programme Not Even a Show on Monday," reported James Bickerton. "Discussing the call on Infowars, a website he founded in 1999, Jones said he received a call purporting to be from Carlson, who he speaks to 'here and there on the phone' while in an accounting meeting."

"Describing what happened next, he said: 'I go 'hey what's going on Tucker?' And it's Tucker Carlson's voice, and it starts saying these horrible, lurid sexual things to me and I instantly figure out this is AI, someone's spoofing his number and I confront the individuals on this. They say a few more things then the phone hangs up,'" said the report. "Jones said he then called Carlson, along with his lead producer, to warn them about what had taken place."

James took credit for the prank on Twitter: "Okay so let's say someone has Tucker Carlson's cell number and also Alex Jones' cell phone number, and also an AI Tucker Carlson voice. They could IN THEORY call Alex Jones and pretend to be Tucker, and have a full conversation with him. Anyways I just did that ... I was honestly caught off guard by how much he bought that it was Tucker. I ran out of clips."

This comes as both Carlson and Jones have faced precipitous downfalls in their right-wing media careers.

Carlson was swiftly and unexpectedly fired by Fox News shortly after the network settled the Dominion Voting Systems lawsuit for $787 million. Reportedly the network was alarmed by numerous communications Carlson made that surfaced as part of discovery in the case, including his using derogatory slurs for women against Fox executives and a virulently racist text about a video of violence against an antifascist demonstrator — although some experts think there were other reasons. Jones, meanwhile, has roughly a billion dollars in judgments against him over his harassment campaign against the parents of the Sandy Hook Elementary shooting victims, and has been frantically trying to shift money around to avoid creditors.