An American CEO was forced to cut her trip to Canada short after posting an AI-edited photo of herself and three family members wearing “Lake America” sweatshirts that went viral and sparked an uproar.
Jane Smith, CEO of Family First Credit Union, which is based in Saginaw, Michigan, has apologized for the now-deleted photo that she posted on Facebook.
According to a report by ABC 12 News, Smith was planning to head out for 10 day trip to Halifax in Nova Scotia, Canada with her family on September 11. Before boarding their flight at Halifax, the CEO says she and her family were discussing President Trump’s recent executive order to rename Lake Ontario to Lake America amid the trade war between the two countries.
So they decided to take a group photo at the airport and put it through ChatGPT to see what it would look like if they were wearing Lake America sweatshirts. Smith says they were “kind of poking fun at the fact that you know one of the Great Lakes’ names were getting changed” with the AI-edited photo.
‘Like Our Sweatshirts? Not Sure Canada Will’
Smith tells ABC 12 News that she then posted the doctored photo to her private Facebook page in what she describes as a poor-judgment attempt at humor with a marker saying it contained AI content. The CEO shared the image with the caption “Like our sweatshirts? Not sure Canada will” followed by “lol lol.”
Smith says her sister Lila, who was accompanying her on the trip to Canada, reposted the photo on Facebook publicly without the AI marker when the group arrived in Halifax.
“My sister took a screenshot, she made her own comment and she posted it,” Smith explains to the news outlet. “We were in Halifax at the time. We never had actual sweatshirts. We never wore sweatshirts.”
According to a report by CTV, the AI-edited photo quickly went viral, sparking an angry backlash from Canadians over its reference to the controversial proposal to rename Lake Ontario and gaining national news coverage.
‘AI Can Be Dangerous’
The family returned from their trip because Smith said she was getting death threats over the photo. Reflecting on her actions, Smith has since apologized, saying the photo wasn’t intended to be a “political statement.” The CEO says she won’t be using AI again.
“I think the AI can be dangerous in the fact that it can make people think something’s real that’s not,” Smith tells ABC 12 News. “I understand if I was someone in Halifax and I thought a poor group of people walked in wearing those sweatshirts, it is highly offensive and I would understand why they would be so angry.”
“I am not a person that would ever want to offend or hurt anybody,” she adds. “I do regret having any post that would make someone feel like we don’t value them as human beings.”
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