The CEO of Family First, a Michigan-based credit union, is no longer with the company after she posted an AI-generated image of her family sporting “Lake America” sweatshirts during a trip to Canada, sparking outrage online.
In a groveling Facebook post announcing the ouster, Family First apologized “for the concern, disappointment and pain this situation has caused our members and community.”
“We understand that members of our community may hold different perspectives about this decision,” the credit union added in the Wednesday statement. “Our responsibility is to act in the best interest of the Credit Union, uphold the trust of our members and continue putting our community first.”
The offending sweatshirts surfaced Sept. 11, when Smith shared a photo of herself and some family members and used ChatGPT to make it look like they were wearing “Lake America” sweatshirts, according to ABC12 News, a local outlet.
The exec was and her fam were at the start of a 10-day trip to Halifax, Nova Scotia
“Like our sweatshirts? Not sure Canada will. Lol lol,” Smith captioned the Sept. 11 Facebook post, which has since been deleted.
Two weeks earlier, President Trump had signed an executive order renaming the US portion of Lake Ontario to “Lake America” as the US-Canada trade war heated up. While Canada’s Prime Minister Mark Carney and US lawmakers including New York Gov. Kathy Hochul bashed the rebrand, companies including Apple and Google went along with it, MapQuest demurred.
Smith’s post sparked uproar online, with one Reddit user fuming: “she can take her political drama and f–k off.”
For her part, Smith voiced regret for the original post.
“We weren’t trying to make a political statement,” she told ABC12 News. “However, we were, you know, kind of poking fun at the fact that you know one of the Great Lakes’ names were getting changed.”
The AI-altered image was originally posted to Smith’s private Facebook account – but her sister Lisa, who was with her on the Canada vacation, reportedly reposted it publicly without a label disclosing the use of AI.
Smith said her family had to leave the trip early because she was receiving death threats – and that she won’t be using AI again.
“I am not a person that would ever want to offend or hurt anybody,” she said. “I do regret having any post that would make someone feel like we don’t value them as human beings.”
Family First is based in Saginaw, Mich., about 75 miles from the Canadian border.
In an earlier statement to ABC12 News, the union said it “unequivocally disapproves and rejects the content of the social media post involving our CEO, Jane Smith.”
Family First did not immediately respond to The Post’s request for comment.