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. 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. After Powell’s moved ahead with producing the shirts, customers noticed and reacted on social media.