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.

The image in question which some people had speculated was AI (Image: Reform/WhocanIvotefor)

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".

X's AI tool Grok said the picture of Mr Boyd is likely to be AI (Image: X)

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........

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