Trump vs the NFL: AI Insight into Player Protests - UNANIMOUS A.I.

In a week where North Korea insisted that America had declared war and Puerto Rico suffered one of the worst natural disasters in its history, headlines were nonetheless dominated by a war of words between Donald Trump and the National Football League. Speaking in Alabama, the President declared that he would like to see NFL owners whose players knelt during the national anthem to "get that son of a b*tch off the field right now. Trump's comments insisting that players be compelled to stand during the national anthem put a spotlight a handful of NFL players who continued the protest initiated last year by former 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick. In response to Trump's comments, every NFL team – and nearly every owner – offered some version of protest in Week 3. The controversy around the NFL protests and Trump's comments raised many questions about the nature of peaceful protest, what the national anthem represents and, what rights are protected by the First Amendment. These are thorny, complicated questions, and researchers at Unanimous AI sought to untangle them by forming a swarm of thirty American voters inside our Swarm AI platform.