This week, we discuss why so few campaigns seem to be experimenting with A.I. The Times’s Sheera Frenkel joins us with examples of the many different artificial intelligence products that have been turned down by campaigns in this election cycle, from A.I.-generated endorsements from long-dead historical figures to a synthetic version of Donald Trump. Then, we interview the Wyoming man who ran for mayor on the promise that he would exclusively use a customized ChatGPT bot to run the city. And finally, it’s time for a tech check. We run down the apps we’re using to become more productive.

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Photo Illustration by The New York Times

“Hard Fork” is hosted by Kevin Roose and Casey Newton and produced by Rachel Cohn and Whitney Jones. The show is edited by Jen Poyant. Engineering by Daniel Ramirez and original music by Dan Powell, Marion Lozano, Rowan Niemisto and Pat McCusker. Fact-checking this week by Ena Alvarado.

Special thanks to Paula Szuchman, Pui-Wing Tam, Nell Gallogly, Dahlia Haddad and Jeffrey Miranda.