A candidate from the British populist party Reform UK stood in last month’s election but had to defend himself after allegations that he was not a real person but was in fact an artificial intelligence (AI) generated candidate.
“I am a real person and that is me in the photograph,” Mark Matlock confirmed to British news media. Independent“But I have to admit I enjoy the free publicity. When I feel like it, I’ll put out a video and prove that the rumors about me being a robot are complete bullshit.”
“When I saw it, I just laughed,” he added. “I think it gave me energy. I thought, ‘I need to get out there again.’ This is better for me than campaigning. It’s great.”
In the UK’s most recent general election, Reform Party members performed better than expected, winning 14% of the vote, but because of the single-member constituency system, this meant they only won 1% of the seats in the House of Commons, or five seats overall.
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The party’s victory had a major impact on the ruling Conservative Party candidates, splitting the vote with the lowest turnout in nearly a century and leading to a near historic victory for rival Labour.
There have been numerous allegations on social media that the Reform Party is trying to game the system and field fake candidates in a number of constituencies, with Mr Matlock, running in London’s Brixton and Clapham Hill, becoming a poster boy due to his unnatural appearance.
Reform UK Party Clapham and Brixton Hill candidate Mark Matlock, pictured from the party website. (British Reform Party)
“The political mainstream has been trying to catch Reformers for a while now, given their shocking surge in the polls,” Alan Mendoza, co-founder and executive director of the Henry Jackson Society, told Fox News Digital, and said AI has proven a useful tool in doing so.
“The unexpected nature of the election and the need for reformists to field as many candidates as possible, even in districts they could not win, provided ample opportunity for them to do so, and some of the reform candidates did indeed express unpleasant views,” Mendoza argued.
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“The idea of an AI candidate was just an extension of that approach, but it has now been completely proven wrong,” he said, adding that such doubts would be magnified if elections are rushed and result in “paper candidates” who never meet voters.
“Of course, if such a candidate actually won, the whole plan would fall apart, so it’s hard to imagine a situation in which any party would actually sink to such a low level,” Mendoza said of a candidate generated entirely by AI.
Reform UK leader Nigel Farage attends the vote count in the Clacton constituency in Clacton-on-Sea, England, on July 5, 2024. (Chris Ratcliffe/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Online users pointed out a noticeable lack of online activity for many of the reformist candidates and quickly began analyzing fliers and election materials that claimed to feature AI-created candidates. This was reported by Scottish media outlet The National..
Green Party candidate Xiaolan Yuan picked up on these allegations, claiming he had “never seen or heard” of Matlock, who is running against him in his constituency. He referred to “suspicions” that Matlock had been generated by AI, while independent candidate John Key said there was “no sign” of Matlock on election night.
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Mr Key claimed Mr Matlock “does not live in the constituency” and had not responded to emails he sent to all his rivals, but Mr Matlock claimed he had fallen ill on the night of the election.
“I got pneumonia three days before the election. I was working out and taking vitamins so I could vote but it was just too much,” Matlock said. “On election night I couldn’t even stand up.”
Reform UK MP Lee Anderson (left), Reform UK Leader Nigel Farage, Reform UK MP Rupert Lowe, Reform UK Chair Richard Tice and Reform UK MP James McMurdoch are pictured in the House of Commons in Westminster, London, on July 9, 2024. (Maja Smiejkowska/PA Image, Getty Images)
Regarding his election poster, Matlock explained: “My photograph was taken outside the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford. The background has been removed and replaced with my logo and the colour of my tie has been changed.”
“However, it was a short notice and a photographer couldn’t be called, so that’s what happened, but that was me,” he claimed.
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Matlock He told the BBC She said she had received “a lot of abuse” from people online, calling them “very mean” and dismissing the mockery as “unnecessary”. The BBC also reported that an independent investigation into Reform UK’s claims of fake candidates had found “no evidence” of any fraudulent candidates.
The Reform Party admitted it had scrambled to find a candidate at the last minute after then Chancellor Rishi Sunak’s sudden decision to call a general election and was so “desperate” to find one that it ended up asking friends and family to run.
Reform UK Leader and Clacton MP Nigel Farage, Reform UK Chair and Boston and Skegness MP Richard Tice, and Ashfield MP Lee Anderson attend a Reform UK press conference in London on July 5, 2024. (Guy Smallman/Getty Images)
“They are basically friends, relatives and company employees,” a party spokesman told reporters. “One of the candidates has encouraged his partner to run.”
The entire episode highlights growing concerns about the potential influence of AI on elections as the technology continues to advance.
A candidate in last year’s Turkish presidential election claimed that Russia had released an AI-generated sex tape made with deepfake technology using footage from an “Israeli porn site,” according to The Guardian.
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“I don’t have such images, I don’t have such recordings,” Muharrem Ince said before announcing he was withdrawing from the election following “personal attacks.” “This is not about my private life, it’s slander, it’s not true.”
Republican Sen. Pete Ricketts of Nebraska addressed China’s alleged use of deepfake videos to spread propaganda on social media platforms during a 2023 Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing.
