Speech of Jaron Engelmayer

Last week, a rabbi gave instructions via YouTube on how rabbis can compose their speeches using artificial intelligence. He enthusiastically explained how rabbis can save themselves so many hours of work. I received his words with less enthusiasm: will rabbis, like many others, soon be among the professions that can be replaced by artificial intelligence? In the future, will we only need someone who will be able to read out loud the speeches? Even this task could actually be replaced by artificial intelligence! Essentially, listeners can also be replaced by artificial intelligence, so in the future robots will be able to listen to robots and people will stay at home?

First of all, I can assure you that I wrote this article myself, without using artificial intelligence, but trying to use human intelligence. However, artificial intelligence was of great help to me when it came to translating the article from German into English. A few years ago, such a translation would have been completely incomprehensible and misleading, but today it works almost perfectly.

The topic of artificial intelligence may seem very intimidating to us and is a testament to the fact that the world is changing dramatically faster. I still belong to the generation that grew up without the Internet and mobile phones, a kind of fossil from whom children want to know how we actually got onto the Internet in our childhood without a cell phone. We have been facing these rapid, drastic changes for many years and trying to adapt. However, at the same time I belong to the Jewish religion, which has existed for over 3000 years and has not only withstood the many changes, but has had a significant influence on many of them. Therefore I would like to take a look at the opportunities and dangers of artificial intelligence.

 

Good development? The theological view

 

Judaism is fundamentally positive and encourages scientific and technological developments. The last word in the creation story is: "La'assot" - "to do" - G"d created the world in order to be active in it. Our sages say furthermore that man has been commissioned by G”d to further develop creation and thus become G”d's partner in it. This is also what the prophet Isaiah says (45:18): “G”d did not create the world to be a wasteland, but to populate it.”

This is what the idea of Shabbat, the Sabbath day, stands for. On one day, from Friday evening to Saturday evening, we should not carry out any work activities, that means any creative activities that change the world. 

When a Jewish father of a marriageable daughter once examined a young man to see whether he could be considered as a husband for his daughter, he wanted to know from him: "Are you sure you won't work on Shabbat?" The future son-in-law replied: "Sir, if you wish, I will not work any day of the week.”

Of course, this is not the idea of Shabbat, quite the opposite. The Torah says: “Six days you shall work, and on the seventh you shall rest.” Part of the idea of Shabbat is to develop and change the world six days a week. With the help of technological development, people can be relieved; a tractor can do the work of many human forces, which has sometimes helped to maintain agriculture without having to maintain an entire farm of servants and slaves. The number of lives that can be saved in healthcare today thanks to artificial intelligence can hardly be counted.

 

Only with technological development can we achieve the messianic hope of Isaiah (11:9) that the world will be filled with knowledge, the knowledge of G”d, which contains all the secrets of creation. With the possibilities of the Internet and the rapid spread of knowledge, we have already come much closer to this vision, which until recently was at best a utopia.

 

Dangers 

 

But with development comes dangers. To Dr. Karpel Lippe, a well-known doctor in the 19th century, one of his patients once came and proudly reported: "Doctor, I won't have to see you anymore. Our child's teacher bought a medicine book in which all diseases and their cures are described." Dr. Lippe replied calmly: "Just make sure you don't die from a misprint."  

Today this danger is even more true. Ignorance, half-truths and fake news are spreading uncontrollably these days; unfortunately, knowledge and information are not protected and insufficiently regulated in social and official media. This has dangerous consequences, particularly through the mass proliferation effect. The algorithms of social media are polarizing because they mean that users are constantly fed with similar information and their views become one-sided, instead of questioning things critically and looking at the issue in a complex manner. We Jews experience that in a fierce way these days by the way how the conflict in Middle East is reported on by the medias, causing a lot of Antisemitism without much regulation.

 

Another point: Artificial intelligence still does not have all aspects of human qualities, such as empathy, compassion, love, caring and other advantages of emotional intelligence. If it is meant to replace people, these significant components will be lost. Or to put it another way: There is still no QR code for appreciation.  

Artificial intelligence has a lot of power and could lead to megalomania. When humanity took a great step in its development and was able to make bricks from clay, the Torah records that in their presumption they built the Tower of Babel-Babylon. According to some commentators, this was intended to be able to control all people from above and force them into a unity. Therefore, G"d did not approve of the undertaking, scattered everyone on earth and divided them into many languages - to preserve diversity, reverence and humility.  

Artificial intelligence also does not have the ability of free will: the ability to distinguish between good and bad according to human standards.

 

Solutions and recommendations 

 

One of the problems of our time is the pace of these developments. They are overtaking us, and risk regulation cannot always keep up with the new possibilities, which can have dangerous consequences. More time and resources might need to be invested in the ethics and rules of AI applications, and, above all, clearer internationally applicable structures and boundaries should be created.  

The human factor must not be ignored; AI can support humans, but should not and must not replace them. 

When making use of progress, enormous respect is always required for creation, fellow human beings and the creator. This idea is again expressed on Shabbat, when the world rests for a day and is not to be changed. This is a sign of respect and introspection about how the developments of the past week and in general are shaping up: constructive or destructive?  

 

Finally, I can say with peace of mind: the speeches for the rabbi that artificial intelligence produces are not yet as mature as the human work. In addition, AI will probably not be able to replace religious representatives in a certain area for a long time: to reach not only people's minds, but also their hearts.