Have you seen the content of the books in the tweet[1] linked below the article? Between horses with fused butts and other diagrams that don't say as much as they purport to, the cover is the least of its problems, although the only one that can be criticized directly.

[1] https://infosec.exchange/@lcamtuf/116785283147249092

This seems to be some out of context pictures where I have no idea what they are meant to be showing or whether they succeeded. And although the cats and zebras are clear AI images again that doesn't mean anything, being exactly 2 pictures presented with no context apart from being seen in a book. So there is a book where the editor was lazy and let some bad AI images through.

I'm sure someone deeply familiar with childrens publishing would be able to talk authoritatively on the extent of new trends, but this seems to be the infosec community and the evidence offered doesn't seem to actually be evidence of anything. There isn't a baseline. Children's encyclopedias might have been a hard-hitting game of radical creativity and high standards in the past, or it could be an endless tide of derivative swill.

And using AI images seems unrelated. That's something people should just be doing. Ideally with better proofreading, but hey. The article's complaint was about lack of originality.