Union workers at Powell’s Books told the company there was something wrong with its new merchandise, but higher-ups ignored their complaint until a public outcry erupted, then publicly apologized.
It started when the company outsourced redesign of a much-loved t-shirt instead of assigning that work to one of three in-house designers who are represented by ILWU Local 5. The shirt had the image of a wolf perching on books above the words “fiercely independent since 1971.” When an image of the new shirt was shared, staff told managers that it appeared to have been created using generative AI (artificial intelligence). AI is a black box of wonders, but it also consistently renders images with bizarre features. It’s a phenomenon that’s come to be known as “AI slop” — low-quality, low-effort work put out by generative AI technology. In this case the image showed books whose spines only went half-way down, so that pages were exposed. No human artist would have misunderstood what a book looks like.
After Powell’s moved ahead with producing the shirts, customers noticed and reacted on social media. Embarrassed, the company issued a statement saying “we value the work of human artists,” and pledging to employ local artists to design new merchandise.
Local 5 responded with its own statement: “We appreciate the fact that Powell’s is responding to this issue and also lament the fact that it took public outcry for them to do so.”
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