新星戰計畫：五角大廈加緊反制太空威脅

The Pentagon is rushing to expand its capacity to wage war in space, convinced that rapid advances by China and Russia in space-based operations pose a growing threat to U.S. troops and other military assets on the ground and U.S. satellites in orbit.

五角大廈正加緊擴大在太空發動戰爭的能力，相信中國和俄羅斯在天基作戰的迅速進步，對美國部隊、地面其他軍事資產與軌道上的美國衛星，造成不斷增加的威脅。

Details of the push by the Pentagon remain highly classified. But Defense Department officials have increasingly acknowledged that the initiative reflects a major shift in military operations as space increasingly becomes a battleground.

五角大廈努力的詳情仍是高度機密。但國防部官員已日漸承認，隨著太空逐漸變成一個戰場，這項新措施反映軍事行動的重要變化。

No longer will the United States simply rely on military satellites to communicate, navigate and track and target terrestrial threats, tools that for decades have given the Pentagon a major advantage in conflicts.

美國將不再完全依靠軍事衛星來通訊、導航和追蹤及瞄準陸地威脅，而這類工具數十年來一直讓五角大廈在衝突中享有一大優勢。

Instead, the Defense Department is looking to acquire a new generation of ground- and space-based tools that will allow it to defend its satellite network from attack and, if necessary, to disrupt or disable enemy spacecraft in orbit, Pentagon officials have said in a series of interviews, speeches and recent statements.

相反的，五角大廈官員在一系列採訪、演講和最近的聲明中表示，國防部正計畫取得新一代陸基和天基工具，使其能夠防禦己方衛星網路免受到攻擊，而且，如果必要的話，能夠擾亂或讓敵人在軌道上的太空飛行器失效。

The strategy differs fundamentally from previous military programs in space by expanding the range of offensive capabilities — a far cry from the never-built 1980s-era Strategic Defense Initiative proposal, for example, which was focused on using satellites to protect the U.S. from nuclear missile strikes.

透過擴大攻擊能力範圍，這個戰略與以往的太空軍事計畫有根本上的不同，例如，和從未發展的1980年代時期「戰略防禦機先」提案相去甚遠，該提案重點是利用衛星保護美國免受核子飛彈打擊。

“We must protect our space capabilities while also being able to deny an adversary the hostile use of its space capabilities,” Gen. Chance Saltzman, chief of space operations at the Space Force, the agency created in 2019 as a new division of the Air Force Department to lead the effort, said in March.

太空軍作戰部長薩茲曼將軍3月說，「我們一定要保護我們的太空能力，同時拒止對手敵意運用其太空能力」。太空軍是2019年成立的機構，作為空軍部的一個新部門來指揮該項工作。

Pentagon officials and a recent unclassified assessment by the director of national intelligence say that Russia and China have tested or deployed systems such as ground-based high-energy lasers, antisatellite missiles or maneuverable satellites that could be used to disrupt U.S. space assets.

五角大廈官員和國家情報總監一份最近的非機密評估表示，俄羅斯和中國已測試或部署陸基高能雷射、反衛星飛彈或機動性衛星這類系統，可用於擾亂美國太空資產。

The concern has only escalated with reports that Russia may be developing a space-based nuclear weapon that could broadly wipe out satellites in orbit, both commercial and military. Russia’s use of electronic jamming tools during the war in Ukraine — which have at times disrupted advanced U.S. weapons systems — is cited by Pentagon officials as another reason the United States must intensify its defenses in space.

一些報告讓憂心更加升高，這些報告稱俄羅斯也許在發展一種天基核子武器，可以廣泛的消滅軌道上的衛星，包括商業和軍事衛星。五角大廈官員認為，俄羅斯在烏克蘭戰爭使用的電子干擾工具，有時候會擾亂先進的美國武器系統，是美國必須強化其太空防禦的另一個理由。

“It is now not theoretical,” Gen. Stephen Whiting, who oversees Space Command, which is responsible for using space assets to defend the United States, said in a meeting with reporters last month in Colorado. “It’s real. It’s deployed, out in the environment.”

太空司令部負責運用太空資產保衛美國，監督該司令部的懷庭將軍上月在科羅拉多州與記者會面時表示，「現在這已不是假設，是真的，它已經部署在那邊」。

AI預告顛覆2024大選 仍屬理論

Artificial intelligence helped make turnout predictions in the Mississippi elections last year, when one group used the technology to transcribe, summarize and synthesize audio recordings of its door knockers’ interactions with voters into reports on what they were hearing in each county.

人工智慧（AI）在去年密西西比州選舉中，協助做出投票率預測。當時，一個團隊使用該技術，轉錄、總結與合成敲門拜票志工與選民互動的錄音，成為他們正在每個郡聽聞情況的報告。

Another group recently compared messages translated by humans and AI into six Asian languages and found them all to be similarly effective. A Democratic firm tested four versions of a voice-over ad — two spoken by humans, two by AI — and found that the male AI voice was as persuasive as its human equivalent (the female voice outperformed her AI equivalent).

另一個團隊最近比較人類和AI翻譯成6種亞洲語言的訊息，發現結果都是同樣有效。一家民主黨公司測試4個版本的旁白廣告，2個由人類陳述、兩個由AI，發現男性AI聲音跟人類相同聲音一樣有說服力（女性聲音則勝過AI相同聲音）。

The era of artificial intelligence has officially arrived on the campaign trail. But the much-anticipated, and feared, technology remains confined to the margins of American campaigns.

在競選活動上，人工智慧時代已正式到來。但是，這項大受期待且引發恐懼的技術，仍然局限於美國選戰的邊緣。

With less than five months until the 2024 election, the political uses of AI are more theoretical than transformational, both as a constructive communications tool or as a way to spread dangerous disinformation. The Biden campaign said it has strictly limited its use of generative AI — which uses prompts to create text, audio or images — to productivity and data-analysis tools, while the Trump campaign said it does not use the technology at all.

距離2024年大選投票還有不到5個月，AI的政治運用是理論多於變革，不論是作為一種建設性溝通工具或是一種傳播危險假訊息的途徑。拜登競選團隊表示，已嚴格限制使用提示以創造文本、聲音或圖像的生成式AI用於生產力跟數據分析工具，而川普競選團隊表示，完全不使用該技術。

“This is the dog that didn’t bark,” said Dmitri Mehlhorn, a political adviser to one of the Democratic Party’s most generous donors, Reid Hoffman. “We haven’t found a cool thing that uses generative AI to invest in to actually win elections this year.”

霍夫曼是民主黨最慷慨的捐款者之一，他的政治顧問梅爾霍恩表示，「這是不叫的狗」。他說，「我們還沒有找到一個酷玩意，可利用生成式AI投資，以真正贏得今年的選舉」。

Technologists and political operatives have little doubt of AI’s power to transform the political stage — eventually. A new report from Higher Ground Labs, which invests in political technology companies to benefit progressive causes and candidates, found that while the technology remains in “the experimental stage,” it also represents “a generational opportunity” for the Democratic Party to get ahead.

技術專家和政治工作者，毫不懷疑AI最終將改造政治舞台。投資政治技術公司以俾益進步派理念及候選人的高地實驗室一份新報告發現，雖然技術仍在「實驗性階段」，也代表民主黨獲得成功的「世代機遇」。

Both Democrats and Republicans are also racing to shield themselves against the threat of a new category of political dark arts, featuring AI-fueled disinformation in the form of deepfakes and other false or misleading content. Before the New Hampshire primary in January, an AI-generated robocall that mimicked President Joe Biden’s voice in an attempt to suppress votes led to a new federal rule banning such calls.

民主黨人和共和黨人都在競相保護自己，不受新類型的政治巫術威脅，其特點為AI助長的假訊息，以深偽跟其他不實或誤導內容的形式出現。在一月新罕布夏州初選之前，AI生成的自動語音電話模仿拜登總統聲音，試圖壓制投票，促成一項新的聯邦法規禁止這類電話。