LA Times Nixes AI Tool That Downplayed KKK Racism While Sounding Exactly Like Real-Life Republicans

For some wild reason, the Los Angeles Times thought it was a good idea to use an artificial intelligence feature to inform its readers on subjects like American history. Predictably, the use of this feature backfired horribly and the Times ultimately had to nix the feature just 24 hours after it was launched. Why did the publication need to get rid of the AI feature so swiftly? Well, it probably has something to do with the AI tool downplaying the horrifically racist and violent history of the Ku Klux Klan.

From The Wrap:

“Local historical accounts occasionally frame the 1920s Klan as a product of ‘white Protestant culture’ responding to societal changes rather than an explicitly hate-driven movement, minimizing its ideological threat,” the AI-generated note read.

The note was added by “Insights,” the name of the Times’ new AI tool, to a Feb. 25 article on the 100th anniversary of Anaheim removing KKK members from its city council. Writer Gustavo Arellano said the historical decision was an example of “how to combat tyranny and white supremacy — and also that the work is never really done.”

It added another bullet point, saying “critics argue that focusing on past Klan influence distracts from Anaheim’s modern identity as a diverse city, with some residents claiming recent KKK rallies were isolated incidents unreflective of current values.”

OK, I’m just going to say what a lot of you must be thinking: Why is the Times’ AI tool out here sounding just like a Republican?

I mean, what is MAGAgpt going to say next? Maybe something like: “The idea that slavery was the cause of the war, it wasn’t. The Southern states seceded because the North was advocating they do away with slavery, but they offered no idea as to what the South would do with a loss of $2 billion of property, per se.”

Wait — sorry — those were actually the words of former GOP Rep. Tommy Benton, who also once said the KKK “was not so much a racist thing but a vigilante thing to keep law and order,” and that “it made a lot of people straighten up.”

 

Perhaps the MAGA Meta tool the Times had to ditch would also have taught that enslaved people benefited from slavery. No, wait, that would be the curriculum for students in Florida, which was approved by the state’s Department of Education and one of the original white nationalist anti-woke propagandists, Gov. Ron DeSantis.

MAG-A-I might have also taught the Times’ readers that abolitionist and former slave Frederick Douglass would have agreed with America’s choice to prioritize white supremacy over ending slavery. Wait, that would be PragerU, an unaccredited conservative non-profit organization founded by a loud and proud racist, which Florida officials selected to provide classroom materials to Florida schools.

But, whatever — at least the LA Times did the right thing and immediately got rid of the AI tool that is virtually indistinguishable from President Donald Trump’s “1776 Commission.” Now, if we could only do the same with the current controlling political party that is neither artificial nor intelligent — but just as prone to downplaying systemic racism while normalizing white supremacy.

If only it were that simple.

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