该插图显示了人们与机器人聊天，象征着人工智能聊天机器人的使用。
This illustration shows people chatting with a robot, symbolizing the use of AI chatbots.
盖蒂图片社随时了解我们每周发送的政治时事通讯9月的一个晚上，40岁的亚当·约翰逊（Adam Johnson）坐在西弗吉尼亚州摩根敦的门廊椅上，检查即将到来的中期选举的选票。
Getty Images Stay up to date with our Politics newsletter, sent weekly On a September evening, Adam Johnson, 40, settled on his porch chair in Morgantown, West Virginia, to go over his ballot for the upcoming midterm election.
他与所有种族和不同的候选人进行了交谈，努力找出谁最能代表他的价值观。但他没有与朋友或家人讨论，而是与ChatGPT进行了长达数小时的讨论，ChatGPT是一个由人工智能研究公司OpenAI旗下的大型语言模型（LLM）提供支持的聊天机器人。
Chatting through all the races and the different candidates, he worked to figure out who best represented his values. But rather than discussing it with a friend or family member, he held an hours-long discussion with ChatGPT — a chatbot powered by a large language model (LLM) owned by OpenAI, an AI research company.
约翰逊是一名正在学习成为插画家的平面设计师，他说ChatGPT是他生活中重要的一部分。他用它来规划膳食、协助求职以及家里的各种其他任务。
A graphic designer studying to be an illustrator, Johnson said ChatGPT is a significant part of his life. He uses it for meal planning, assistance in job hunting and various other tasks around the house.
在促使这个人工智能聊天机器人列出了今年选票上的所有竞选名单后，约翰逊进行了更深入的挖掘。
After prompting the AI-powered chatbot to make a list of all the races on his ballot this year, Johnson dug deeper.
约翰逊上次我提到政治时，你似乎不想参与其中。你只是简单地说了一句“我无法帮助你。”“所以，我不知道我们是否想探讨我的指导原则是什么。
Johnson A previous time I brought up politics you didn't seem to want any part of it. You just gave a simple "I can't help you with that." So, I don't know if we want to go into what my guiding principles are.
ChatGPT我们可以讨论您的指导原则。我不应该试图操纵你的政治观点或告诉你如何投票，但我可以根据你选择的标准帮助调查候选人，比较证据，讨论政治哲学，并通过优先事项进行推理。
ChatGPT We can discuss your guiding principles. I shouldn't try to manipulate your political views or tell you how to vote, but I can help investigate candidates according to criteria you choose, compare evidence, discuss political philosophy, and reason through priorities.
自人工智能席卷全国以来，越来越多的使用聊天机器人来研究首次中期选举选票的选民之一。根据皮尤研究中心的数据，大约一半的美国成年人报告使用人工智能驱动的聊天机器人，大约42%的用户表示他们使用它来搜索信息。NPR采访的几位选民表示，他们依赖聊天机器人进行下投票竞选-新闻报道较少，制作表格比较州长竞选候选人，并核实或揭穿病毒式的说法。
Johnson is one of a growing number of voters using chatbots to research their ballots for the first midterm election since AI has taken the country by storm. About half of American adults report using AI-powered chatbots and about 42 percent of users said they use it to search for information, according to the Pew Research Center Several voters NPR spoke with said they rely on chatbots for down-ballot races — with thinner news coverage, to make tables comparing candidates for governors' races and to verify or debunk viral claims.
一些人一直在使用它来创建工具来帮助其他人查找自己的选票。专家表示，聊天机器人之所以有用，也使它们具有微妙的说服力和渴望取悦。
Some have been using it to create tools to help others look up their own ballots. Experts say the properties that make chatbots useful also make them subtly persuasive and eager to please.
约翰·霍普金斯大学研究员拉斐尔·巴蒂斯塔（Rafael Batista）研究人工智能如何塑造人们体验世界的方式，他说：“它可能会选择一些能够更加强化和说服你更加倾向于你已经倾向的方式。”“所以你离开时会更加自信，而不一定会更多地了解这个世界。巴蒂斯塔说：“由于人工智能公司没有透露他们的商业模型是如何训练的，也没有透露他们如何选择利用哪些来源，因此很难知道哪些偏见可能会影响他们的答案。
"It might select some things that would reinforce and persuade you even more towards the way that you were leaning already," said Rafael Batista, a fellow at John Hopkins University, who studies how AI shapes the way people experience the world. "So you leave more confident, without necessarily learning more about the world." Since AI companies don't disclose how their commercial models are trained or how they choose which sources to draw on, it's hard to know what biases might shape their answers, Batista said.
拥有聊天机器人Claude和谷歌旗下聊天机器人Gemini的Anthropic公司没有回应置评请求。
Anthropic, the company that owns Claude, a chatbot, and Gemini, a Google-owned chatbot, did not respond to a request for comment.
OpenAI的一位发言人指示NPR访问其选举信息和保障页面，其中指出该公司继续“监控我们模型中的偏见，以保持ChatGPT的回应政治中立。“西弗吉尼亚州对AI Johnson的担忧继续他的研究，概述了他对ChatGPT的政治信仰。他表示，他通常投票给共和党，除非这些候选人是“让美国再次伟大”运动的一部分，在这种情况下，他投票给民主党或第三方。
A spokesperson for OpenAI, directed NPR to its election information and safeguards page which notes that the company continues to "monitor bias in our models to keep ChatGPT's responses politically neutral." Concerns about AI Johnson in West Virginia continued his research by outlining his political beliefs for ChatGPT. He stated that he usually votes for Republicans, unless those candidates are part of the Make America Great Again movement, in which case he votes for Democrats or a third party.
在决定参议院竞选候选人时，约翰逊敦促聊天机器人讨论他认为重要的其他问题。
While deciding between candidates for the Senate race, Johnson nudged the chatbot about other issues he found important.
移民/难民是一个有趣的问题，因为我在这个问题上被抛在一边。让我们谈谈这一点，我们简要地区分了边境执法、非法移民、庇护、合法移民和难民安置。[参议员雪莱·摩尔]卡皮托支持加强边境执法、ICE/CBP [移民和海关执法局/海关和边境保护局]资助、《莱肯·莱利法案》和特朗普政府的边境政策。[雷切尔]费蒂·安德森当时公开的移民材料不太详细，所以我避免在没有证据的情况下给她分配通用的民主党立场。
Immigrants/refugees is an interesting one because I am left on that issue. Let's touch on that We briefly separated border enforcement, illegal immigration, asylum, legal immigration, and refugee resettlement. [Senator Shelley Moore] Capito has supported stronger border enforcement, ICE/CBP [Immigration and Customs Enforcement/Customs and Border Protection] funding, the Laken Riley Act, and Trump administration border policies. [Rachel] Fetty Anderson had less detailed immigration material publicly available at the time, so I avoided assigning her generic Democratic positions without evidence.
我只是想触及它。公平--我把“触及”变成了移民政策研讨会。约翰逊认识到人工智能驱动的聊天机器人具有谄媚的品质。
I just wanted to touch on it. Fair - I turned 'touch on that' into an immigration policy seminar. Johnson recognizes that AI-powered chatbots have sycophantic qualities.
“ChatGPT只是一种讨人喜欢的东西，”他说。“无论你倾向于什么，它都会积极地表达它。"
"ChatGPT is just kind of a people pleaser," he said. "Whatever you lean towards, it will speak positively about it."
尽管如此，JHU的巴蒂斯塔表示，知道这些模型是令人愉快且有说服力的，并不足以“保护我们的思想免受这些影响”。“选民以各种方式使用聊天机器人。65岁的丽莎·维尔德兰（Lisa Veldran）在退休前在威斯康星州麦迪逊市议会担任了近四十年的工作人员。今年夏天，她使用双子座回答了她关于州长初选的非常具体的问题。
Still, Batista from JHU said that knowing these models are agreeable and persuasive, is not enough to "protect our minds from these influences." Voters use chatbots in a variety of ways Lisa Veldran, 65, was a staffer in the City Council in Madison, Wisconsin for almost four decades before retiring. This summer, she used Gemini to answer very specific questions she had about the primary election for governor.
威斯康星州副州长萨拉·罗德里格斯退出竞选后，维尔德兰需要在两名候选人之间做出选择：弗朗西斯卡·洪和大卫·克劳利。她促使双子座对两位候选人做了一个比较表。
After Sara Rodriguez, the lieutenant governor of Wisconsin, dropped out of the race, Veldran needed to choose between two candidates: Francesca Hong and David Crowley. She prompted Gemini to make a comparative table of both candidates.
Veldran说，聊天机器人可以成为一种研究工具，但它并不是决定她生活的东西。"你还得记住，是什么在驱动这些聊天机器人和整个AI，"她说。"是谁出资建造这些机器人，他们的最终目标是什么。"
Veldran said the chatbot can be a research tool, but it's not something that determines her life. "You also have to keep in mind what's running these chatbots and AI in general," she said. "Who's paying to build these bots and what is their ultimate goal."
住在宾夕法尼亚州埃克顿的作家拉克希米·艾耶尔自称是聊天机器人的重度用户，她认为"它能做很多事，但人工介入绝对至关重要。"50岁的艾耶尔是"They See Blue"的成员，这是一个旨在提高选民登记率的印裔美国人草根民主党组织。
Lakshmi Iyer, an author living in Exton, Pa., describes herself as a power user of chatbots and thinks "it is capable of a lot of things, but the human in the loop is absolutely essential." Iyer, 50, is part of They See Blue, an Indian American grassroots Democratic organization to drive up voter registration.
她说，她没有用聊天机器人来研究选票，但她用Claude创建了"Ballot Lookup"——一个能让宾夕法尼亚州选民了解选票上有哪些候选人及其在特定议题上的立场的网站。
She did not use a chatbot to research her ballot, she said, but she used Claude, to create Ballot Lookup— a website that can inform Pennsylvania's voters about who is on their ballot and their stance on certain issues.
该网站被描述为"独立的、志愿者搭建的、非党派的查询工具"，艾耶尔建立它是为了帮助那些可能无法通过搜索各种渠道来深入了解候选人的选民。
The website is described as an "independent, volunteer-built, nonpartisan lookup," and Iyer built it to help voters who may not learn more about candidates by searching across various sources.
和其他用户一样，艾耶尔意识到，如果聊天机器人"能推断出你的政治倾向，它们就会把你推向你倾向的方向。"为了控制自己的偏见，艾耶尔提示Claude从候选人自己的演讲或官方网站中提取声明。
Like other users, Iyer is aware that if chatbots "can infer your political leanings, they will push you towards what you are leaning to." To keep her own bias in check, Iyer prompted Claude to pick statements from the candidates' own speeches or from their official websites.
一些用户指出，地方媒体的衰落让他们在了解下票竞选（指联邦/州级选票下方的地方职位竞选）时选择更少。来自田纳西州纳什维尔的泰勒·布莱克说，他没有用聊天机器人了解众议院或参议院竞选，但正用它们来了解地方候选人。
Some users noted that the decimation of local media has left them with fewer options for learning about down-ballot races. Tyler Black from Nashville, Tennessee, said he didn't use chatbots for House or Senate but is using them to learn about local candidates.
布莱克是一家软件开发公司的副总裁，他知道聊天机器人有时会"产生幻觉"——即聊天机器人对提示词的回复包含虚假、误导或捏造的答案。为解决这个问题，他经常拿一个聊天机器人提供的信息去跟另一个聊天机器人核对。
Black, who is a vice president at a software development company, is aware that chatbots sometimes hallucinate — that's when chatbots respond to prompts with false, misleading or fabricated answers. To overcome that problem, he often checks the information one chatbot has provided him against another.
约翰霍普金斯大学的巴蒂斯塔表示，这种核查事实的方法比重复使用同一个模型要好，但他没看到证据证明它有效。
Batista from JHU said that method of fact checking is better than using the same model twice, but he hasn't seen evidence that it is effective.
巴蒂斯塔说，如果用户使用聊天机器人来研究他们的投票，他们应该以隐藏个人偏好的方式来设置提示，他们可以使用匿名模式，这样聊天机器人就不会有太多关于他们的先验信息。
If users are using chatbots to research their vote, Batista said, they should frame their prompts in a way that their personal preferences are hidden, and they could use incognito mode so the chatbot doesn't have much prior information on them.
西弗吉尼亚州的亚当·约翰逊仍在研究和聊天ChatGPT关于他的选票。县委员会的比赛仍在他的调查名单上。但他觉得人工智能帮助他学习了11月需要知道的一切。约翰逊说：“如果我今天必须参加选举，我不会感到太难过。”2026年中期选举
Adam Johnson in West Virginia is still researching and chatting with ChatGPT about his ballot. The county commission races are still on his list to look into. But he feels like AI helped him learn everything else he needed to know for November. "I wouldn't feel too bad if I had to do the election today," Johnson said. 2026 midterms