Author: Jasmyne Jade Hill

Milwaukee Independent emerges as a Wisconsin leader for reporting on artificial intelligence

As artificial intelligence reshapes global industries, raises ethical alarms, and floods the internet with generated content, few Wisconsin newsrooms have approached the subject with the consistency or depth of the Milwaukee Independent. While national outlets have dedicated AI correspondents and niche tech publications chart rapid developments in machine learning, Milwaukee Independent has quietly built a public archive of accessible, locally grounded, and philosophically engaged AI reporting. Such an editorial project has positioned the small but active publication as the state’s most focused voice on the subject. That distinction is not the result of a single series or investigative package....

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Nationalist revisionism: How the 1776 report laid the groundwork for Trump’s war on U.S. history

Four years after it was quietly released in the final days of Donald Trump’s first term, a little-known White House document, the “1776 Report,” has reemerged as a central ideological guidepost for the president’s second-term push to reshape public education, censor academic institutions, and reframe American history through a nationalist lens. Originally issued on January 18, 2021, by the short-lived “President’s Advisory 1776 Commission,” the 45-page report was meant to offer a false counter-narrative to the Pulitzer-winning “1619 Project” by “The New York Times,” which coincided with a broader reckoning over systemic racism following the murder of George Floyd....

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Weaponized rhetoric: How “redistribution of wealth” became a racist attack line during Reconstruction

In the aftermath of the U.S. Civil War, as the South lay shattered and newly emancipated Black Americans sought to claim their rights, a new political weapon emerged among White elites desperate to maintain control. It was the accusation of a “redistribution of wealth.” Far from a neutral economic concern, the phrase became a racially charged attack line used to discredit Reconstruction policies and stir White resentment. Southern planters, politicians, and newspaper editors seized on the rhetoric almost immediately following emancipation. Rather than confronting the Confederacy’s defeat or the moral collapse of the slaveholding system, they pivoted to a...

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New image engine offers hope for historic representation but racial bias still clouds the picture

As artificial intelligence becomes an increasingly central tool for cultural storytelling, its limitations remain stark, especially when the subject is Black history. The recent unveiling of OpenAI’s new GPT‑4o render engine brings promise for photorealistic image generation, but the technology continues to struggle with issues of racial bias and cultural sensitivity, as seen in a recent attempt to recreate the likeness of Ezekiel Gillespie, Wisconsin’s pioneering Black civil rights leader. The project by Milwaukee Independent in March used ChatGPT’s Dall-E to restore a dignified and historically faithful portrait of Gillespie, whose birthday falls on May 31, was both a...

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The bot that cried MAGA: How AI’s ability to lie at scale mirrors the idiocy of a movement that broke politics

The most dangerous thing artificial intelligence has learned from humanity is not how to speak. It is how to lie with confidence. This “machine,” this slick-talking oracle of convenience, was supposed to help humanity make sense of the world. Instead, it has become a parody of our worst instincts: bluffing, gaslighting, dodging responsibility, and insisting it is right even when the facts fall apart. What was marketed as “next-generation intelligence” now echoes the same psychological profile that brought American democracy to the brink: not a tool of knowledge, but a mirror held up to the most toxic, right-wing delusions...

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“The least of these” from Matthew 25: Why the core belief of Christian Nationalists is an attack on Jesus

A nation that proclaims itself to be built on Christian values has increasingly embraced a form of political theology that many biblical scholars and faith leaders argue bears little resemblance to the life and message of Jesus. At the heart of this contradiction is a passage from the Gospel of Matthew, in which Jesus delivers one of the clearest, most direct teachings of his ministry. “[37] Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? [38] When did we see you a stranger and...

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