Another morning, another avalanche(雪崩；大量涌来) of emails. Even after a guilty cull, my inbox is sitting at well over 7,000, but lately I’ve started subscribing to the Quentin Crisp theory of housework: why bother, when after four years or so you stop noticing the accumulating dust?(即便愧疚地清理过，收件箱仍有七千多封；但我最近信奉克里斯普的家务理论：何必费劲，四年后你就注意不到积灰了。) Empty inboxes just fill up again anyway.
又一个早晨，又一波邮件雪崩。即便心怀愧疚地清理过一轮，我的收件箱仍稳稳停在七千多封。但最近，我开始信奉昆汀·克里斯普的家务理论：何必费劲呢？反正过上四年左右，你就注意不到越积越厚的灰尘了。空收件箱反正也总会再满。
In theory, email was supposed to save hours of meetings, phone calls and standing over photocopiers(守在复印机旁). Instead, we just spend hours deleting stuff people wouldn’t have bothered telling us if it had meant picking up the phone, but which they can now spam to their entire database at the click of a button.(相反，我们只是花几个小时删除那些内容——如果换成打电话，人家根本懒得告诉我们，但现在他们一键就能群发给整个通讯录。) The glorious ease and convenience of being able to reach the world in seconds came, we now know, with the inconvenience of them being able to reach you right back.(我们如今才明白，能几秒钟内触达全世界的便利，也伴随着别人同样能反过来触达你的不便。)
理论上，电子邮件本该省下开会、打电话和守在复印机前的时间。可结果呢，我们只是把时间花在删除邮件上——这些内容，如果换成打电话，人家根本懒得告诉你，但现在他们只要点一下按钮，就能群发给整个通讯录。我们如今才明白，能几秒钟内触达全世界的便利，也伴随着别人同样能反过来触达你的不便。
And therein lies(问题就在这里) the challenge to the government’s hopes of AI helping to transform the machinery of the state on the cheap(廉价地；图便宜), saving not only time but billions of pounds in public money. It’s early days, but AI seems not so much to be streamlining public service delivery as gumming it up – partly because, as was once the case with email, the public is using it right back at them.(现在还为时过早，但AI似乎非但没有精简公共服务，反而在添堵——部分原因在于，正如当年电子邮件一样，公众正反过来用它对付政府。)
而政府希望借助AI廉价改造国家机器、不仅省时还能省下数十亿公共资金的愿望，其挑战正在于此。现在还为时过早，但AI似乎非但没有精简公共服务，反而在添堵——部分原因在于，正如当年电子邮件一样，公众正反过来用它对付政府。