Smart lighting manufacturer Govee is apologizing after a pair of books showing only the words “white supremacy” were featured in a marketing image on its website.
The books were visible in an image (shown above) on Govee’s US website for bedroom lighting. Disturbingly, the books sat under toy animals on a shelf just above a child’s bed. Only the books’ spines were visible.
The Verge was the first to report on the controversy after a reader contacted the publication. The publication reported that it contacted Govee, which subsequently removed the image but didn’t respond to the site’s queries before it published its initial report.
When reached for comment by Ars Technica, Connie Liu, Govee’s PR manager, said:
The image was sourced from a third-party licensed library.
The Verge noted on Tuesday that the marketing image lacked Coalition for Content Provenance and Authenticity (C2PA) or SynthID watermarking data that sometimes accompanies AI-generated images.
“However, we recognize that our internal review and approval process did not meet the standard required. We are taking immediate steps to strengthen our processes to ensure this does not happen again,” Liu said.
Liu didn’t provide specific responses to questions about whether humans review marketing images before Govee publishes them or what steps it takes to ensure its materials don’t contain offensive elements.