Dutch politician expelled after AI-edited photo sparks controversy

A Rotterdam city councillor has been expelled from her political party after digitally altering her official publicity photo to the point of being unrecognisable, Oddity Central reports.

Patricia Reichman, 59, faced criticism for using generative AI to enhance her official candidate photo, dramatically changing her appearance. Despite the obvious edits, Reichman insisted the image was genuine.

“The photo in the neighbourhood paper was of too low a resolution, so I ran it through an online tool to boost the pixel count,” Reichman told Dutch newspaper Algemeen Dagblad. “It really is my photo; that really is me. I look a bit different at the moment, but that is due to medication I’m taking. That will be ending soon.”

The controversy escalated after side-by-side comparisons of the original and edited photos went viral online. Reichman continued to claim she naturally looks younger than her age. “When I’m out and about with my son, people often assume I’m his girlfriend,” she said. “I hear it all the time, that I look remarkably young for my age.”

Her political party, Leefbaar Rotterdam, publicly acknowledged that the photo had been heavily edited and requested her resignation. When she refused, the party took the unprecedented step of expelling her.

“When the information provided during the job interview proves not to correspond with reality, there is no basis of trust to continue working together,” the party said in a statement. “The photo has clearly been heavily edited with AI and is not a realistic representation.”

By Vafa Guliyeva