The New Yorker's AI-generated Altman portrait is a masterclass in why AI art still creeps people out

The New Yorker just published a portrait of OpenAI CEO Sam Altman that's genuinely unsettling—and it's supposed to be. Illustrated by David Szauder using generative AI, the image shows Altman surrounded by distorted versions of his own face, ranging from angry to anguished. Some barely resemble him at all. It's the kind of thing that makes you do a double-take, which is probably the point. What's interesting here isn't just that a major publication used AI art for a profile about an AI CEO (the irony is pretty on-the-nose), but that it actually works as commentary. Szauder, a mixed-media artist who's been experimenting with generative processes for over a decade, created something that feels intentional and unsettling rather than lazy. The disclosure at the bottom—"Generated using A.I."—might spook illustrators more than the image itself. It raises the question: when does AI art become legitimate editorial choice versus just cutting corners?