West Yorkshire MP becomes first to create AI version of himself to talk to constituents
Mark Sewards has become the first UK politician to create an AI version of himself to interact with constituents
Last updated 6th Aug 2025
Mark Sewards, a labour MP has become the first UK politician to create an AI version of himself to interact with constituents.
The AI version of the Leeds South West and Morley MP is a virtual representation of himself, using his voice and allowing people to ask for help with local issues or policy queries.
He has worked with a local startup AI firm to help create it, with other MP's already contacting Mr Sewards asking him to let them know how he gets on.
Explaining how it will work, he said: "It can't replace anything I do now, it can't replace surgeries, it can't replace door to door contact..."
"When my office is closed, somebody calls it up, tries to leave a voicemail, they might be able to leave a voicemail, and then we can get back to them. But this could be a really clever voicemail that might actually be able to answer their questions before then, my team pick it up."
Mr Sewards goes on to say: "If we can't answer that, the AI chat box can't answer the question, a transcript is sent to my e-mail account, and a transcript sent for every request that's made of it, and then we essentially look at that and go well, it's not answered that question, so let's answer it for them.
"Now in most cases so far it hasn't been able to address or answer questions because we're very much in the testing and refining stage and just to be clear, I'm here to test this out and see if it is actually useful. If in a few weeks time I've decided that there is no practical application for this, we won't use it. We'll get rid of it. But for now, it's important to embrace the opportunities that AI gives us."
We exclusively asked the Prime Minister Sir Kier Starmer what he thinks about this who laughed and said: "I haven't quite seen what he's set up and how he's intending to do it, and as a result of you asking I should go and find out.
"But, I don't know how he's intending to deal with this but I'd certainly need to check there aren't two of him in the voting lobby when we get to legislation when we get back in September."