What happened

UK right-wing political party Advance UK covertly used an AI-generated rapper and online influencer "Danny Bones" to reach voters during the UK's Gorton and Denton by-election - one of the first documented cases of a registered UK political party paying for content from an AI influencer that peddles extremist rhetoric. 

In the weeks before the party contested the by-election, Advance UK paid pseudonymous AI collaborative Node Project to produce its main campaign video - a two-minute film that has since been viewed nearly a quarter of a million times, according to The Bureau of Investigative Journalism (TBIJ).

The film was also posted on Advance UK's official website as its flagship political video. 

An AI-generated persona, Danny Bones' rap tracks have garnered more than 375,000 Spotify and YouTube streams, and his song videos viewed nearly three million times on YouTube Shorts, Instagram Reels, and TikTok. 

Why it happened

The incident was driven by the low cost and high viral potential of generative AI, which allows fringe political actors to create "astroturfed" movements that appear to have organic cultural support. 

A lack of transparency and accountability in the AI production chain, specifically the anonymity of the "Node Project", allowed the party to distance itself from the extremist lyrics of the AI rapper while benefiting from its reach. 

Furthermore, a number of social media platforms initially failed to identify the content as synthetic, allowing it to bypass political advertising disclosures.