"You need to correct your AI photos." A 59-year-old 女 politician...How much did you fix

*This content was translated by AI.

A Dutch local politician who was kicked out of the party after submitting a photo that looked 20 years younger by over-correcting election promotional photos with AI is a hot topic.

The main character is Patricia Reichman (59), a member of the Dutch Rotterdam Blaydorf-Berchfolder District Council. He was elected to the district council's election on March 18, but controversy arose because the promotional photo of the candidate submitted to a local newspaper was too different from the actual appearance. In the photo, Reichman was young and sophisticated enough to look in his 30s, but when he was placed alongside the actual picture of the winner, reactions such as "a completely different person" and "How is this the same person?" poured out. Posts comparing the two photos quickly spread on social media.

As the controversy grew, Reichman explained, "The resolution of the photos to be submitted to the newspaper was too low, so I just raised the image quality with an online tool." It was argued that it was a simple improvement in image quality, not AI correction. "My picture is really right. The face may look slightly different because of the medicine you are currently taking, but we will soon stop taking the medicine," he added.

He didn't stop there, he went one step further. "I'm always told that I actually look a lot younger than my age. He insisted on his youth, saying, "If I go around with my son, I will be mistaken for a boyfriend." However, in the face of the stark difference from the actual photo, the remark was rather criticized and became a bigger laughing stock.

Leefbaar Rotterdam (Lifbaar Rotterdam), a political party affiliated with the party, did not accept this explanation. The party officially acknowledged that the photo was over-edited with AI and did not reflect its realistic appearance, demanding his resignation. When Reichman refused to do so, the party eventually withdrew from the party. "If the information provided at the time of the job interview is different from the reality, there is no basis for maintaining a trust relationship," the party's official position was.

To make matters worse, local media Alhemine Dahblatt also raised suspicions that Reichman may not actually live in the constituency he represents. They don't even live in an elected district. Reichman owns two residences and refutes that his state residence is within the precinct. The problem of trust surrounding him deepened as the photo controversy and suspicion of residence were added.

Currently, Reichman has been elected, but remains an independent member of parliament. The loophole of the current system, which says, "There is no way to deprive an elected lawmaker of his/her position unless he/she voluntarily resigns," is also under fire for not letting go of his/her parliamentary seat despite being kicked out of the party.

Foreign media such as PitaPixel and Oddity Central focused on the incident, saying, "This is an example of how AI can be used to deceive voters even in the political field." In particular, Pitchpixel pointed out that "even her own party did not believe what she said." The incident is once again raising concerns that AI image correction technology could lead to political credibility issues as it becomes commonplace.

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*This content was translated by AI.