If you are in San Francisco trying to follow the goings-on in your neighborhood or within city hall, you may have come across The Dissent. The website brands itself as “an AI newsroom” with work “reported, edited, and produced by named agents.” Its founder and publisher Dakota Carrasco — a real person, and, incidentally, an analyst at the notorious investment firm BlackRock — published text on the…
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For nearly a century, Missouri was considered a bellwether — a leader or indicator of the political trends of the nation. If you wanted to take the nation’s pulse, there was no better place to look than the heart of our country. Between 1904 and 2004, Missouri’s electoral votes reflected the winning presidential candidate in every single election minus Eisenhower’s re-election in 1956. Today…
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Across the United States, and increasingly in other democracies under siege, higher education faces a coordinated assault unlike anything witnessed in generations. State governments are prohibiting the teaching of histories that confront slavery, colonialism, Indigenous dispossession, structural racism, and widening inequality. Books are disappearing from classrooms and libraries. Diversity…
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When residents of Madison County, North Carolina, sought to speak about the county’s AI surveillance cameras at a recent Madison County Commissioners meeting, commissioner Michael Garrison’s response was simple: “You will not speak on Flock tonight.” A clip capturing Garrison’s move to prevent public comment soon went viral, resonating with others waging similar battles in their communities.
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Ahead of this weekend’s Independence Day celebrations — with this year marking the 250th anniversary of the founding of the United States — new polling suggests that most Americans believe the country has moved away from its founding principles, with an overwhelming number concerned that democracy is at risk of eroding. According to an NPR/PBS Newshour/Marist poll conducted last month and…
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