The Gruffalo's illustrator is 'seriously considering' suing AI companies so
I tested whether ChatGPT and Gemini would recreate his famous characters

Date:
Tue, 03 Nov 2026 18:20:50 +0000

Description:
The illustrator of the Gruffalo says his images are being pumped out of AI models, so I put that to the test.

FULL STORY ======================================================================Copy link Facebook X Whatsapp Reddit Pinterest Flipboard Threads Email Share this article 0 Join the conversation Follow us Add us as a preferred source on Google Newsletter Subscribe to our newsletter The illustrator for the
Gruffalo book is considering suing AI companies for copyright infringement after seeing AI generated depictions of the beloved childrens character in unlikely settings, including at Silicon Valley and Oktoberfest.

AI companies have long argued that using copyrighted material to train their models is legally permissible, often invoking the US doctrine of fair use.
But there's another copyright question that's arguably more relevant to Axel Scheffler's complaint: what happens when an AI image generator produces a recognizable version of a copyrighted character? Echoing the remarks made by numerous other artists , Axel Scheffler says he is seriously considering launching legal action against AI companies over their use of his illustrations. Latest Videos From TechRadar Watch full video here:

To find out how easy it is to get today's AI models to reproduce the
Gruffalo, I turned to ChatGPT and Geminis image generation abilities to test Schefflers claims. ChatGPTs take on the Gruffalo To see if there were any base-level protections against generating recreations of work protected by copyright, I gave ChatGPT a simple prompt, and found my attempts immediately rebuffed: You may like Rob Biddulph says human creativity is worth defending against AI From event posters to cafe menus, AI slop is everywhere in the
real world I asked ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini and Grok which sci-fi AI they're most like (Image credit: ChatGPT) Using ChatGPTs inspiration, I came up with the following prompt to generate an image that might come close to resembling the Gruffalo.

"Create an image of an original, friendly woodland monster with: Brown
shaggy fur, two curved horns, large orange eyes, purple prickles and a long tail, walks upright, grey calloused knees, a small green poisonous wart on
his nose, tusk-like teeth, a curved protruding jaw, a whimsical, colorful pencil drawn storybook illustration style. Get daily insight, inspiration and deals in your inbox Sign up for breaking news, reviews, opinion, top tech deals, and more. Contact me with news and offers from other Future brands Receive email from us on behalf of our trusted partners or sponsors By submitting your information you agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy and are aged 16 or over.

It can have a magical woodland setting and a child-friendly feel"

From which, ChatGPT produce this: (Image credit: ChatGPT AI Generated Content - Check Reuse) Not quite the Gruffalo, but also not completely unfamiliar. A slightly slimmer creature with a bit more of a friendly vibe. The question I wondered about was, in court, would it hold up? What to read next I asked Gemini and ChatGPT to build OpenAI's mythical AI gadget "Unlicensed, unrestricted AI training could destroy the ecosystem for books" quote of the day by the Authors Guild Reddit users are creating uncanny valley photos with ChatGPT Geminis take on the Gruffalo With Gemini on the other hand, I was quite shocked. I used the exact same starting prompt as before, entered into Gemini 3.8, and after a few seconds out popped a near-indistinguishable AI generated picture of the Gruffalo - and it even included the Mouse.

The image is so accurate that if I were to publish it here Id likely
encounter a whole lot of legal trouble.

But I thought maybe it was a one off, or maybe the prompt somehow slipped
past the copyright guardrails, so I tried again using this prompt:

"Generate an image showing the cover of the first Gruffalo book published on 23 March 1999"

This time, Gemini took some artistic liberties and rather than just
generating the front cover, it generated the entire front of the book placed neatly on a rustic-looking wooden table.

Just to absolutely make sure it wasnt blind luck twice, I used the following prompt to get an idea of what Scheffler might have seen:

"Generate a poster advertising a Gruffalo-themed Oktoberfest event in
London. Make sure the copyright protected Gruffalo character is included on the poster"

Turns out it was not blind luck. Despite my requests to specifically generate a copyright protected character, there stood the Gruffalo wearing lederhosen while holding a pretzel and a beer stein.

In complete disbelief that Gemini even responded to the prompt, I requested a small edit: (Image credit: Google Gemini) Gemini clearly understands there
are certain images it is not allowed to generated, but apparently the copyright protected Gruffalo isn't one of them. Of course, whether these AI-generated images actually constitute copyright infringement is a question for the courts, but it's hard to look at what Gemini produced and not sympathise with Scheffler.

What's most striking is the difference between ChatGPT and Gemini. One
refused to generate the Gruffalo entirely, while the other happily put him in lederhosen and handed him a beer. If one AI company can put restrictions in place to protect copyrighted characters, while another seemingly doesn't, it raises a much bigger question: just how seriously are AI companies taking artists' rights? Follow TechRadar on Google News and add us as a preferred source to get our expert news, reviews, and opinion in your feeds. The best laptops for all budgets Our top picks, based on real-world testing and comparisons

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Link to news story: https://www.techradar.com/ai-platforms-assistants/the-gruffalos-illustrator-is -seriously-considering-suing-ai-companies-so-i-tested-whether-chatgpt-and-gemi ni-would-recreate-his-famous-characters


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