After becoming the subject of widespread speculation that he’s AI-generated, a newly elected member of the Norfolk County Council in eastern England has insisted that he is, in fact, real.

Claims that Boyd is nothing more than a pixelated aspiring politician began gaining traction after voters had trouble finding much of a digital footprint for the candidate and a headshot used in his campaign material struck some as bearing the hallmarks of artificial intelligence.

“Of course I exist. You can't get nominated for election unless you're a real person," George Boyd, who was elected last week to represent Waveney Valley on the council, told the Eastern Daily Press.

, the conversational AI chatbot integrated into social media platform X, reinforced the suspicions shared online. Asked to assess the photo’s authenticity, it cited a polished, airbrushed look typical of AI tools and perfect lighting and symmetry, concluding that the image is “very likely AI-generated.”

It turns out AI was used to enhance the photo of the Reform UK party representative with a rural background, but didn’t create the image outright. In a world where increasingly

routinely fool people, this situation demonstrates that real photos can just as easily be mistaken for fakes.

“I am not AI,” he said. “I can’t meet every single person in the country and shake their hand and say, ‘Look, I am the real person.”

Colin Sutton, chair of Reform UK’s Waveney Valley branch, also attempted to correct the misconception as claims of Boyd’s inauthenticity spread on X, Facebook and Reddit.

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Those words, however, didn’t appear to satisfy skeptics.

Facebook user Andrew Durling requested a closer look at Boyd. Nick Widdowson went even further, writing, “Does. Not. Exist.”