AI Ethics is Another Casualty of the Gaza War

Does a traumatized minority have the bandwidth for this?

In a little less than a month, several Protestant denominations will be gathering in Minneapolis to discuss their policies around artificial intelligence. I don’t know whether the conference will result in anything material, but the effort is significant—and it is far from being an isolated event. The new pope’s very name was chosen in reference to AI’s world-changing power. Social conservatives, many motivated by Christian faith, are trying to shape the Trump administration’s AI regulatory efforts and put pressure on big AI firms. Less than three years after the launch of ChatGPT, Christian groups are finding their footing on AI.

Jewish efforts, by contrast, barely register. As far as I know, there are no permanent Jewish groups dedicated to developing AI thought or policy, no dedicated networks, no ongoing efforts to engage the many Jews working in AI, and no serious efforts to bring together American and Israeli thought on AI. (If I’m wrong about any of this, please correct me.)

Now, I don’t think this deficit is permanent, and I’m not exactly a disinterested observer. I’m seeking to change this situation, I’m looking for partners, and I see glimmerings of other efforts. But the contrast is notable, and the reason is pretty obvious: the war in Gaza.

October 7 stopped AI ethics in its tracks

Beginning with the launch of ChatGPT I began getting invitations to provide a Jewish perspective on AI, largely but not exclusively for Jewish audiences.

And then October 7 happened and interest immediately stopped. Over the next twelve of so months the only Jewish institutions interested in talking about AI were the ones who (a) had scheduled stuff prior to the start of the war or (b) were specifically looking to not talk about the war. For 12–18 months, interest in AI remained pretty low, even as the technology’s applications and pervasiveness skyrocketed.

At the same time, AI ethics has been part of the Gaza war. Along with the war in Ukraine, it will be recognized as one of the first conflicts in which AI played a major role in determining targets. This role has likely made it much more complicated for Jewish organizations to talk about AI ethics generally, despite the fact that Jewish thinking about autonomous tools (both cars and weapons) remains more sophisticated than Jewish thinking about generative AI. A discussion that in 2019 was very theoretical has now become so personal that it cannot be removed from contemporary politics.

”AI for Torah” is cool but it’s not enough

The one area where I do see Jewish AI developing is in education. Lots of people and organizations are interested in using AI to make their ideas more accessible. Organizations dedicated to Jewish learning wants to use AI to enhance learning experiences, automagically create worksheets, or AI tutors, or AI study partners. Sites that have proprietary stores of Torah want to use AI to make that knowledge more accessible.

I don’t begrudge any of these efforts. In general I’m quite open to the use of AI in Jewish learning environments. However, I am very concerned that we’re going to repeat the mistake we made around social media, where the allure of the product as a broadcast tool prevented use from properly critiquing the product itself. We can’t afford to equate Jewish AI thought with Jewish AI applications. That would be a major lapse in our responsibility to deal with one of major technologies of our time.

People are looking for guidance, right now

An obvious retort is that Christians have more power than Jews—and maybe especially so right now, given that most American Jews want little to do with the present administration. If your concern is rising autocracy, even something as big as AI ethics can feel small by comparison.

But as I frequently say, AI policy is not just about government and corporations. The American public continues to maintain its generalized anxiety about the use of AI but individuals do not feel that they have any agency to change the technology’s direction. This situation has only gotten more distressing as AI applications have become more personal. Last year we spent a lot of time talking about how AI will change education and create disinformation. Now we’re talking about AI therapy and porn.

If you’re a Jewish leader, consider that your constituents would probably like answers to the following questions:

• How should I control my kid’s access to AI? Is there a “safe” age to use certain AI applications?

• In what circumstances in work life should I specifically ask that AI not be used? When should I retain an employee even though it’s not resource-efficient?

• Should I insist that sermons be AI-free—and if that’s not realistic, how does that change how we think about Jewish thought and law?

• Do human teachers have more than utilitarian value?

• How should I navigate the threat of solipsism that can come from using AI as a therapist?

• What communal structures need to be built to make it easier for people to mediate their use of AI?

• How should I prioritize my various concerns about AI—and should I be particularly worried about specific models?

These aren’t questions about setting national AI policy; they’re about creating cultures of use. Right now the only people creating those cultures are the companies developing the tools. There must be a counterbalancing effort—and that effort will be most effective if it’s local.

AI ethics is just as existential as battling antisemitism

A people can decline because members are being physically attacked. But they can also decline because they lose track of their purpose. You can lose your body, but you can also lose your soul.

To the extent that Jews see themselves as a people trying to make the world a better place, AI ethics must absolutely become a well-developed area of Jewish thought. You don’t get to cherry-pick areas where you develop moral positions because they’re more convenient or more closely linked to the sources in your arsenal. AI ethics isn’t a reach goal; it’s a necessary condition of our continued existence as a light unto the nations (or even a light unto ourselves).

Jewish AI thought is lagging. If AI were moving more slowly that might not matter; who even remembers which religion responded first to the invention of the telegraph? But in a world of fast-moving technology that promises to change the world irreversibly, speed itself has moral significance, and it also has power. Maybe nobody can move as fast as a tech firms that make it their business to be faster than anybody, but our reaction time still matters a great deal.

To quote Hillel: If not now—when?