Axel Scheffler, the illustrator behind the beloved children's book The Gruffalo, says he is "seriously considering" legal action against artificial intelligence companies he accuses of reproducing his work without permission. "I've been in touch with a lawyer in Germany," Scheffler told BBC London. "There have been illustrators taking legal action against AI companies and I'm seriously considering it. I just want them to stop."
Scheffler, who illustrated The Gruffalo for author Julia Donaldson's 1999 book, said he largely ignored AI until someone showed him his mouse and Gruffalo characters digitally recreated in settings like Silicon Valley and Oktoberfest. "It's clearly my mouse, my Gruffalo, as close as they can do it, but the rest of the image is completely created — it's a clear theft of copyright," he said. He is considering filing suit in Germany, which he believes offers friendlier ground for creators; intellectual property lawyer Nick Buckland told the BBC two German cases had already seen music-collecting societies win against AI companies by showing verbatim reproduction of lyrics, though he cautioned proving infringement from a trained model, rather than a copied file, "would not be straightforward."
Scheffler's potential case would follow a separate, already-filed lawsuit by Penguin Random House and author-illustrator Ingo Siegner against OpenAI in Germany, alleging the ChatGPT maker's models reproduce their children's book character Coconut the Little Dragon; a ruling from the Munich Regional Court is expected in spring 2027. OpenAI said it was "having productive conversations with rightsholders around the world about supporting creativity... while protecting intellectual property." For Scheffler, whose Gruffalo books have sold more than 18 million copies, he said any case would not be about compensation but about "protecting creators now and in the future."