--- title: "Political Candidate Accused of Being AI Insists He Is a Living Human With a Very Smooth, AI-Looking Face" description: "Mark Matlock, a candidate for right-wing populist party Reform UK, raised suspicions with an AI-looking profile picture. He's actually real." date: "2024-07-10" modified: "2024-07-10" authors: - name: "Victor Tangermann" job_title: "Senior Editor" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/victor" url: "https://futurism.com/political-candidate-accused-ai-living-human" categories: - "Artificial Intelligence" tags: - "ai chatbots" - "ai image generators" - "political ai" --- # Political Candidate Accused of Being AI Insists He Is a Living Human With a Very Smooth, AI-Looking Face ![]() *\Image: Futurism\* The surfacing of an unusually smooth-faced politician in the UK sparked a fiery debate on social media last week. Mark Matlock, a candidate for right-wing populist party Reform UK, immediately raised suspicions with a profile picture that looked like it came straight out of a low-grade AI image generator. "Reform UK appear to have fielded a fake candidate made with AI, Mark Matlock," one user [tweeted](). "Look at his hair, AI-generated. It is a crime to field fake candidates and must be investigated immediately." "We might be on the verge of a HUGE SCANDAL," another account [wrote](). "Suspicions have been raised that Reform have fielded election candidates that aren’t real people." https://twitter.com/Dr_BellaR/status/1810294654790676573 But Matlock has now come forward, insisting that his extremely photoshopped-looking visage is in fact real — at least to some extent. "I am a real person and that is me in the photo," he [told *The Independent* over the phone](). "Though I must admit I am enjoying the free publicity and when I feel up to it I will put out a video and prove these rumors that I’m a robot are absolute baloney." Adding to the drama, Matlock was unable to show up during the country's election last week. Now he claims he "got pneumonia three days before election night." "I was exercising taking vitamins so I could attend but it was just not viable," he told *The Independent*. "On election night I couldn’t even stand." As for the obviously tinkered-with photo, Matlock said that he had asked Reform UK to make substantial changes to a real photo of him standing outside a museum in Oxford. "I had the background removed and replaced with the logo and they changed the color of my tie," Matlock told the newspaper. "The only reason that was done was because we couldn’t get a photographer at such short notice — but that is me." And was there some sort of beauty filter that turned his face into something that looks even *more* fake than what a [current AI generator can come up with]()? Regardless, the candidate's rushed race to get on the ballot doesn't exactly instill confidence, especially for a party that has already been embroiled in plenty of controversy. Last month, [three of its candidates were dropped]() following reports that they made racist comments, including derogatory statements regarding the IQ of sub-Saharan Africans and that Black people should "get off \[their\] lazy arses." Reform UK leader Nigel Farage was also a figurehead of the UK's Brexit campaign in 2016, an ill-advised move that has turned out to be [incredibly unpopular](). In last week's elections, Farage's party secured just one percent of seats in parliament, representing 14 percent of voters. While Matlock says he's definitely a flesh-and-blood human, there was another candidate who wasn't shy to reveal he was actually AI. A bizarre avatar dubbed "AI Steve" appeared on the ballot, running to represent constituents in the south of England. He [only scored 179 votes, a mere 0.3 percent](), losing out to the Green party's Siân Berry, who received well over 28,000 votes. In short, only one thing seems certain about AI in elections: things are starting to get very, very weird. **More on AI elections:** *[ChatGPT Is Giving Bad Info About Where to Vote in Battleground States]()* ## Author I've been at Futurism since 2017, where my role has evolved to encompass design, writing, and increasingly editing. I've always been fascinated by space exploration and advanced transportation, which I've leaned into by interviewing luminaries in those fields while closely following the dimensions of policy and regulation that allow next-generation projects to succeed -- or, sometimes, to fail. I'm also keenly interested in the effects of generative AI on society, policies, and democratic institutions, as well as clean energy, physics and biology, and the vagaries of tech leadership. My work for Futurism has been cited by publications including Ars Technica, Gizmodo, PC Magazine, Jalopnik, Fox News, and the New York Post. I spent my childhood living in locations including Manila, the Philippines, and Geneva, Switzerland, attended McGill University, and now live in Toronto, Canada. Before Futurism I worked at AskMen and a small photography studio. In my free time, I'm an avid gardener, foodie, and craft beer lover, as well as a maker of artisanal hot pepper sauces. I have a magnificent dog named Freida. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()