A Chronicle reader who was wrongly led by AI to believe that the late, great actor Richard Burton was a pupil at King Henry VIII Grammar School claims he has learned a valuable lesson.

After watching the premiere of ‘Mr Burton,’ the new BBC film on the early days of the tortured thespian, on Monday night, local lad Vic Dakin began googling the name ‘Richard Burton’ in conjunction with ‘Abergavenny.’

Vic had a vague memory of a rumour that the Port Talbot hot-head and his glamorous wife, Elizabeth Taylor, had once stopped in Abergavenny to eat a steak and kidney pie, and he wanted to check it out with a quick Internet search.

Vic explained, “There was something about Burton and Taylor swinging by The Angel Hotel en route to Merthyr, and I wanted to confirm it via Google.”

To Vic’s surprise, Google’s AI overview offered a wealth of information regarding Richard Burton’s connection to Abergavenny.

Amongst other things, it read, “Burton attended King Henry VIII Grammar School in Abergavenny, a crucial part of his early life and development as an actor.”

It also stated quite matter-of-factly, “Today, Richard Burton’s connection to Abergavenny is remembered as a key part of his Welsh heritage.”

Vic told the Chronicle, “I couldn’t believe it. I never knew Burton had gone to school in Aber. ‘Why had no one else celebrated this awesome fact?’ I asked myself.

“Was it a case of a prophet having no honour in his hometown or something else?”

After posting his newly discovered revelations all over social media, Vic soon found out that he had been duped by Google’s badly malfunctioning AI speech model.

“I couldn’t believe it!” He said. After a series of snarky comments savaging my post, I realised that I had been a victim of false news. Although this is the sort of thing one expects from the BBC, I felt Google would run a tighter ship. It just goes to show, you just can’t believe anything you read anymore!”