{"id":782912,"date":"2026-09-26T05:38:09","date_gmt":"2026-09-26T05:38:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/782912\/"},"modified":"2026-09-26T05:38:09","modified_gmt":"2026-09-26T05:38:09","slug":"michigan-ceo-loses-job-after-posting-ai-made-image-of-her-family-in-lake-america-sweaters-michigan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/782912\/","title":{"rendered":"Michigan CEO loses job after posting AI-made image of her family in \u2018Lake America\u2019 sweaters | Michigan"},"content":{"rendered":"

The CEO of a Michigan<\/a> credit union is no longer employed there, according to the organization, after she posted on social media what appeared to be an AI-generated image of her and her family wearing sweaters emblazoned with the Donald Trump-associated words \u201cLake America<\/a>\u201d.<\/p>\n

In the statement recently announcing that Jane Smith would no longer be its CEO, Family First Credit Union also apologized \u201cfor the concern, disappointment and pain this situation has caused\u201d.<\/p>\n

Smith had been the chief executive officer of the Family First Credit Union when she posed for a family photo at the Detroit airport en route to Halifax, Canada. She reportedly used ChatGPT to edit the family\u2019s sweaters to say Lake America<\/a>, which since late August has been the name that Trump ordered the US\u2019s federal government agencies to use for Lake Ontario amid the president\u2019s trade war with Canada.<\/p>\n

Smith then shared the image on Facebook on 11 September \u2013 the 25th anniversary of the 9\/11 terrorist attacks in the US \u2013 along with the caption: \u201cLike our sweatshirts? Not sure Canada<\/a> will.\u201d<\/p>\n

The post ended with \u201cLol lol\u201d. It went viral and then provoked backlash from people in Canada \u2013 where a portion of the lake is.<\/p>\n

Those online users found it disrespectful, and the post has since been deleted according to Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) News<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Many in the comments highlighted that the post was particularly insensitive, given Halifax\u2019s role in hosting<\/a> thousands of stranded airplane passengers who were diverted there when US airspace closed on the day of the 9\/11 attacks.<\/p>\n

As the controversy intensified, Family First Credit Union \u2013 based in Saginaw, Michigan<\/a> \u2013 said it was reviewing the situation. Smith, meanwhile, apologized, expressing regret, maintaining that the post was the result of poor judgment and saying that she understood why it would be offensive.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe weren\u2019t trying to make a political statement,\u201d Smith told the Detroit television news station WJRT<\/a>. \u201cHowever, we were, you know, kind of poking fun\u201d at the changing of the name of one of the Great Lakes.<\/p>\n

\u201cI 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,\u201d she continued in her remarks to WJRT. \u201cI am not a person that would ever want to offend or hurt anybody.<\/p>\n

\u201cI do regret having any post that would make someone feel like we don\u2019t value them as human beings.\u201d<\/p>\n

Despite her apology, the credit union made it clear that it had parted ways with Smith.<\/p>\n

\u201cJane Smith is no longer employed by Family First Credit Union, effective immediately,\u201d said a statement<\/a> from the organization shared on social media.<\/p>\n

After saying Smith\u2019s interim successor would be Jason Acosta, the statement continued, \u201cWe sincerely apologize for the concern, disappointment and pain this situation has caused our members and community.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe understand that members of our community may hold different perspectives about this decision. 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

Family First Credit Union\u2019s statement about Smith came after broader repudiation in Canada and beyond of Trump\u2019s executive order changing<\/a> Lake Ontario\u2019s name to Lake America.<\/p>\n

Canada\u2019s prime minister, Mark Carney, explained in a post on social media that the body of water\u2019s name comes from the language of the Indigenous Wendat people \u2013 and predates both the Canadian Confederation and the US\u2019s declaration of independence from the UK.<\/p>\n

\u201cCanadians \u2026 know that naming reality means calling it Lake Ontario \u2013 then, now and always,\u201d he wrote<\/a> on X.<\/p>\n

Several US governors in the US\u2019s Great Lakes region also dismissed the name change. Michigan borders the Canadian province of Ontario along with four of the five Great Lakes.<\/p>\n

The only one of the Great Lakes that Michigan does not border is Lake Ontario. New York is the only US state that Lake Ontario borders.<\/p>\n

Trump\u2019s order has no authority to rename Canada\u2019s portion of the lake. It also has no power to compel Canada<\/a>, international legal bodies, international mapmakers or the rest of the world to adopt a new name.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The CEO of a Michigan credit union is no longer employed there, according to the organization, after she…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":782913,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[554,733,4308,86,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-782912","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-artificial-intelligence","tag-ai","tag-artificial-intelligence","tag-artificialintelligence","tag-technology","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/782912","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=782912"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/782912\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/782913"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=782912"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=782912"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=782912"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}