There are plenty of signs that AI will make all of our experiences of the US midterm elections(中期选举) worse. Voters have anxiety(焦虑，不安) about AI’s impacts on the country. Politicos are using AI deepfakes(深度伪造（技术/内容）) to spread lies. The White House is posting slopaganda(垃圾宣传（AI生成的劣质宣传）).
有大量迹象表明，人工智能将使我们所有人对美国中期选举的体验变得更糟。选民对人工智能对国家的影响感到焦虑。政客们正利用人工智能深度伪造来散布谎言。白宫则在发布“垃圾宣传”。
Meanwhile, candidates are missing a real opportunity to use AI to make campaigning better. The technology can help candidates listen more deeply to voters’ concerns, engage constituents(选民，选区居民) more inclusively, and formulate policy platforms that are more responsive(反应迅速的，积极响应的) to our input. There are vanishingly few(极少的，少得几乎为零) examples of this in US politics, but groups in Japan, Scotland and the US’s own academic and private institutions show how that could change.
与此同时，候选人正错失一个利用人工智能改善竞选活动的真正机会。这项技术可以帮助候选人更深入地倾听选民的关切，更包容地吸引选民参与，并制定更能回应我们意见的政策纲领。在美国政治中，这样的例子少之又少，但日本、苏格兰以及美国本土的学术和私人机构团体展示了这种局面如何能够改变。
The problem with American campaigns’ current use of AI is that it’s not very different from the web ads of 30 years ago, or television ads before that: they are all about inundating(淹没，使应接不暇) voters with the candidate’s message. This one-to-many broadcasting is an uninspiring(不鼓舞人心的，乏味的) way to campaign, but not the only way. AI can help candidates connect one-to-one with as many people as possible. Or it can facilitate many-to-many connections, engaging voters in deliberation(审议，深思熟虑) about issues at scale(大规模地).
美国竞选活动当前使用人工智能的问题在于，它与30年前的网络广告或更早的电视广告并无太大区别：它们都是向选民铺天盖地地灌输候选人的信息。这种一对多的广播式宣传是一种乏味的竞选方式，但并非唯一方式。人工智能可以帮助候选人与尽可能多的人进行一对一联系。或者，它可以促进多对多的连接，让选民大规模参与议题审议。