'Of course I exist' says newly elected Reform councillor accused of being AI
Concerns were raised on social media that the new councillor doesn't exist
It is not unusual for a newly-elected councillor to suddenly face awkward questions from the public.
But for George Boyd, who has just been voted on to Norfolk County Council, these don’t relate to the discovery of embarrassing earlier social media messages.
Rather, the new Reform councillor for Waveney Valley has been forced to deny accusations that he is artificial intelligence (AI) and to insist that he does actually exist.
Mr Boyd, who won his seat last week with 35pc of the vote, has been the subject of widespread claims online that he is computer-generated.
The suspicion seems to have been generated by the photograph used in his campaign material which shows him very clean-faced, a hallmark of AI-created characters.
Even Grok, the AI tool on the X social network, has ruled that image of the councillor is “very likely to be AI-generated”, citing a suspiciously “ultra clean, LinkedIn perfect look” and “smooth skin with minimal natural texture”.
Mr Boyd, however, is adamant he is real.
When contacted online by the EDP, he said: “Of course I exist. You can’t get nominated for election unless you’re a real person.”
However, he declined to comment further, adding: “I’m not officially a councillor until the induction day, and have been advised not to do interviews at this time.”
Suspicions about his existence surfaced over the weekend, following his election in the ward – which covers areas such as Ditchingham, Earsham and Broome on the Norfolk and Suffolk border.
One X user used Grok to establish whether the new councillor was real, with the tool suggesting his headshot image was AI-generated.
Discussion about the existence of Mr Boyd has been widespread on Reddit, Facebook and X, with Grok’s verdict heightening the speculation.
Mr Boyd’s Facebook profile does provide some clues about his existence, with details about his background as a student at the University of Hull, where he was general secretary of the university Labour club in 2017/18, and that his nickname is Ducky.
His profile on the website Who Can I Vote For also provides another tantalising detail for those speculating over whether he is real: It states his favourite biscuit is a dark chocolate digestive.
Sceptics have suggested that Mr Boyd might be an extreme, modern version of the paper candidate – someone who is asked to stand for a party with little chance of winning – who had actually ended up victorious as Reform enjoyed a huge surge of success last week.
The party had issued a last minute plea for candidates only weeks before polling day, admitting it was a challenge to recruit enough people in time because the election had initially been postponed.
As the speculation about Mr Boyd’s existence grew, the local Reform branch was prompted to post a picture of him and other activists on the campaign trail.
Mr Boyd even posted a message on Reform’s South Norfolk Facebook branch page, saying: “After the end of an eventful few days, I would like to thank the voters of Waveney Valley division for putting their trust in me to be their new county councillor.
“It has been a fulfilling couple of months trekking the country lanes and speaking with local residents. I certainly feel much fitter!”
However, this only caused greater frenzy among the most sceptical.
One man responded: “Which one in the photo is George Boyd? Can we have a closer look at him, please?”
Others have questioned why more was not known about Mr Boyd before polling day and why he had not provided more details about his views, apart from his fondness for chocolate biscuits.
One commenter added: “It baffles me that people voted for a man where the only information available about him was that he likes chocolate biscuits.
“That’s not people thinking critically about what he stands for.”
One woman said: “If George Boyd exists, why isn’t he interacting with this post and helping clear this up?”
Another woman said: “Why can I find no trace of George Boyd online, I know absolutely nothing about our new councillor, apart from that he likes chocolate digestives.”
Colin Sutton, chairman of the Waveney Valley Reform branch, sought to silence the sleuths questioning whether Mr Boyd is real – although he did acknowledge that AI had been used on the initial photo which caused the frenzy, by adding a background to it.
“As the person who posted that photo online, I can clear this up,” he said.
“He sent me the photo which was him against a white background.
“As all the other leaflets in my constituency had a background, I used AI to create a countryside background, which was the photo used on his leaflet.”