I'm getting a bit freaked out by this AI revolution. It seems like it's going to take over everything. Surely the Torah has something to say about it. Could artificial intelligence bring about the end of the world?

Answer

The Torah has a much happier ending to the story of humanity. Not robots taking over the world, but the arrival of Moshiach, a time of peace, prosperity and spiritual enlightenment.

And yet, robots may play an important role in that time. The prophet Isaiah predicted, "Strangers shall stand and tend your flocks, and foreigners shall be your farmers and vineyard workers." Maybe those “foreigners” will turn out to be robots doing all the menial work while we get on with more important things.

But what if the robots don’t agree to being servants? What if they develop a mind of their own, become difficult to control, and threaten to destroy everything?

Well, it's happened before. The Torah tells us all about it. That's pretty much what the book of Genesis is about. And we are the robots.

G‑d created human beings, gave us intelligence and free choice, and what happened? Adam and Eve disobeyed their very first instruction. Cain murdered his brother. Within ten generations, humanity had become so corrupt that the world needed a Flood. And not long after that, humankind united to build the Tower of Babel in an attempt to challenge heaven.

Sounds a bit familiar. A creator makes an intelligent being, gives it a degree of independence, and it rebels against its master.

The Torah doesn't just present the problem; it has solutions. Genesis offers three different responses to the misuse of intelligence and power.

  1. The Flood. When a creation becomes destructive beyond repair, sometimes you have to shut it down and start again. Not everything we are capable of creating should be allowed to continue.
  2. The Tower of Babel. When humanity united its powers for the wrong purpose, G‑d divided them, muddled their languages, and scattered them across the earth. Sometimes the answer is not destruction but decentralization. Don't allow too much power to be concentrated in one place.
  3. Abraham. This is the ideal. Rather than continually intervening to stop humanity from going wrong, G‑d introduces us to a man who chooses to live according to a higher moral code, and who teaches that code to others. The ultimate solution is not to control intelligence from the outside, but to instill a moral compass that guides it from within.

These are three very relevant principles for the AI age. Know when to pull the plug. Don't concentrate unlimited power in one place. And above all, make sure our technological advances are guided by moral values.

The answers to our biggest questions, even in this robotic age, can still be found in a handwritten scroll given to us over three thousand years ago.

AI can do our laundry, and may even perform open-heart surgery one day. But it can't do morality for us. That is one responsibility we must never outsource.