An AI-generated rapper called Danny Bones with links to far-right Reform splinter party Advance UK repeatedly intervened in the Gorton and Denton by-election. Harriet Williamson and Simon Childs report.

Bones is an AI creation created by a shadowy agency linked to a far-right political party backed by the world’s richest man. An investigation by the Bureau of Investigative Journalism has uncovered links between the operation behind the persona and Ben Habib’s party Advance UK. Experts believe this is the first time an AI character has been linked to a political party, and say Bones is a concerning sign of things to come.