When Dolly Parton and Tim Curry passed away, a cartoon mocking their love for each other went viral, but it wasn't what it seemed. The creator, New Yorker cartoonist Brendan Loper, was shocked to find out that a fan had asked ChatGPT to generate a New Yorker-style cartoon, complete with a fake Loper signature.

This is not just an isolated incident. Nieman Lab found that more than 15 New Yorker cartoonists had seen their signatures appear on images generated by ChatGPT. For artists, this is a serious ethical and legal issue. 'Your name is your reputation, your business,' warns Tom May, an award-winning journalist.

Imagine a potential client seeing a piece of dodgy work with your name attached to it. There would be no recourse if they never mentioned the issue. The lesson? Be wary of sharing content online, as you might be doing a fellow creator a disservice.

For now, the line between inspiration and outright copying remains murky, but ChatGPT’s ability to forge signatures is a clear statement that a human, named or not, has made the work. This is a huge deal for the creative community.