The cover of Christopher Paolini’s latest Fractalverse novel, Fractal Noise, was discovered to have been generated by AI, resulting in widespread criticism of Paolini's publisher Tor Books by readers, artists and its authors. 

It transpired the cover image had originally been posted to a stock art site by a user named 'Ufuk Kaya', and that Tor had in this instance not credited its in-house designer. 

Tor responded to the backlash by saying it had licensed the relevant image from a 'reputable stock house' and was 'not aware that the image may have been created by AI.' 

The company went on to say that it was going ahead anyway 'due to production constraints', triggering another backlash.

Paolini defended Tor’s decision not to stick with move the existing publication date, writing, 'Shifting the release date for Fractal Noise at this point would mean it probably wouldn’t even be published next year.'