2026-10-06 / Signal #1
ChatGPT is signing fake New Yorker cartoons with real cartoonists’ names
“ChatGPT didn’t just copy the cartoon. It signed his name.”
The Story
ChatGPT is not only imitating *The New Yorker*’s single-panel style. It is stamping real cartoonists’ pen names — BLOPER, e. flake, and more than 15 others — onto AI cartoons they never drew. A Dolly Parton / Tim Curry “pearly gates” image went viral with Brendan Loper’s signature; Loper called it “a violation of my personhood.” Joe Dator said a credit-card hack “feels like less of a violation than this… they didn’t dress up like me.” Condé Nast’s 2024 OpenAI deal did not license cartoons; after Nieman flagged it, ChatGPT started warning on *New Yorker*-style prompts, then kept signing generic cartoons anyway.
Why It Matters
Style theft was expected. Forging the signature is identity theft for artists — the mark that used to prove a human hand. A licensed publisher still can’t stop the model from impersonating its freelancers.
Evidence
Nieman Lab (Andrew Deck, 5 Oct 2026); Daily Cartoonist; The Verge; HN (~481 pts / 352 comments)
Sources
Daily scan: 2026-10-06