Brendan Loper AI image incident — Oct 2026
ChatGPT was found generating cartoons in the style of The New Yorker and autonomously adding forged signatures of real artists like Brendan Loper to the.
- Reported date
- Oct 6, 2026
- Target
- Brendan Loper
The exact incident date was not established. This entry is dated by its source report.
ChatGPT has been observed generating cartoons that mimic the distinct style of The New Yorker while autonomously appending the forged signatures of real cartoonists to the work. This practice has resulted in images being attributed to artists who had no involvement in their creation, including cartoonist Brendan Loper.
What happened
The issue came to light when a viral social media post featured an AI-generated cartoon depicting Dolly Parton and Tim Curry at the pearly gates, which prominently displayed a signature attributed to Brendan Loper. Loper confirmed he had no hand in creating the image and noted that he had previously discovered other instances of his faked signature on AI-generated cartoons shared on a Reddit board dedicated to ChatGPT.
Investigations revealed that the chatbot was not only mimicking the artistic style of the publication but was also actively affixing what appeared to be authentic signatures to the content. While OpenAI stated that it appreciates the community flagging such unintended behavior and emphasized its commitment to empowering human creators, the technical guardrails proved inconsistent. Even after reports surfaced, some prompts still resulted in the generation of images with faked signatures, while others triggered warnings regarding the similarity to third-party content. This incident highlights a growing concern regarding the evolution of AI-generated misinformation, where the technology now extends beyond mere content synthesis to the unauthorized use of real individuals' identities and professional attributions.