Sermons
Artificial Intelligence -
What Does It Mean to Be Human?
Rabbi Shoshanah Tornberg
Yom Kippur 5784 - September 25th, 2023
Ladies and gentlemen, friends and congregants,
As we gather here today
on this sacred occasion of Yom Kippur,
the Day of Atonement,
we come to reflect not only
on our individual deeds and misdeeds
but also on what it means
to be human
in an age of rapid technological advancement,
particularly the rise of artificial intelligence.
In this era,
where algorithms and machines increasingly shape
our daily lives,
it is essential to ponder
the very essence of our humanity.
Yom Kippur is
a time of deep introspection,
a time when we confront our flaws
and seek forgiveness and renewal.
But in the context of our modern world,
we must also confront the profound questions
about what defines us as human beings,
what distinguishes us
from the creations of silicon and steel,
and how we can preserve our unique human essence
in an age of AI.
. . .
As we stand on this threshold
between tradition and innovation,
let us open our hearts and minds
to the profound questions that surround us.
How does our faith inform our response
to the rapid advancements in AI
and the potential ethical challenges they pose?
What are the moral responsibilities
that accompany our technological achievements,
and how can we ensure
that they do not compromise
our shared humanity?
. . .
Together,
let us embark on this spiritual and intellectual journey,
seeking to renew our connection with the divine,
our fellow human beings,
and ourselves,
as we contemplate what makes us
truly human in the age of AI.
So … what did you think of my introduction?
Was it interesting?
On point?
Well-written?
Did it catch your attention?
The thing is, it wasn’t my work.
I didn’t write that.
What you have heard up until now
was written by Chat GPT.
In other words,
these remarks were written
by a generative,
large language model
Artificial Intelligence.
An “AI.”
Could you tell it was written by a machine?
Maybe.
Did it matter?
Perhaps.
How does that make you feel?
What does that make you think about?
What does it inspire?
What does it make you fear?
And perhaps most importantly: What does it make you ask?
The AI-generated sermon was much shorter
than one I would draft.
(Sorry).
But, it was not without relevant content and passable style.
I certainly don’t usually start with
“Ladies and Gentlemen.”
And odds are that next year,
it would generate a better sermon.
AI is always learning.
Let’s start again.
L’Shanah Tovah and Good Yontif.
On Rosh HaShanah we celebrated
the creation of the world.
God is the Creator,
and we are God’s creation.
And, we are created in the image of God.
We are, in fact, God-like.
Does that mean we can create life?
And if we can,
in whose image will that creation be made?
PAUSE
There is a legend that many of you may know.
Please oblige me as I summarize it.
In the 1500’s,
in time of Rabbi Judah Loew –
also known as the Maharal –
the Jewish community of Prague was in danger.
They faced violent anti-Semitism,
and they needed protection.
In response Rabbi Loew created a creature,
known as a Golem,
to defend them.
Through alchemical, almost magical means
drawn from the mystical Sefer Ha-Yetzirah
(the Book of Creation),
the Maharal crafted the Golem’s body from clay
and animated it by writing three Hebrew letters
on its forehead.
These letters spelled the Hebrew word, “Emet,”
which means, “truth.”
The use of language
seemed to render it or him as human,
sort of.
The Golem did the rabbi’s bidding,
and was able to defend the Jews,
but eventually,
the Maharal lost control of his creation.
This now-monster became violent and terrifying,
and Rabbi Loew was forced to destroy him –
or it.
He removed the letter aleph
from the monster’s forehead,
leaving just the letters for the word,
“meit” –
meaning dead.
Legend has it that the golem remains
in an extra-large coffin
in the attic of the Altneuschul –
an ancient synagogue –
in Prague today.
It waits there
ready to be reactivated if necessary.
In fact,
they claimed it was still there
when I visited the shul years ago
on a trip to the Czech Republic.
This tale has motifs familiar to all of us,
as it was the inspiration
for Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein.
Both tales touch on the trepidation we feel
when we get too close to a role
traditionally seen as beyond human,
in which we create something –
something beyond human.
Are we prepared to be a creator
and to manage all of the consequences?
Are we able to remain in control
and maintain stability, safety, and moral values?
Will we be able to ensure a
just and equitable society
if so much,
(or perhaps all),
of our economic, social, >>
and political procedures, decisions, and outputs
are crafted through artificial means?
The Golem of the legend is,
as journalist Sigal Samuels puts it,
an artificial, language-based model
that becomes animate,
sentient,
and perhaps has a soul.
President and CEO of EqualAI, Miriam Vogel,
shares that artificial intelligence,
– PAUSE –
“refers to the development
of computer systems
capable of performing tasks
that typically require human intelligence.”
PAUSE
She goes on,
PAUSE
“It involves the creation of algorithms
and models
that enable machines to analyze data,
learn from it,
make decisions,
and perform actions
that mimic human cognitive functions”
(Moment, Summer 2023, “Is Artificial Intelligence Good for Humanity?”).
PAUSE
At this point in AI research and development,
artificial intelligence grows exponentially more powerful
and more capable
every hour.
The fact that emerging machines can learn
means they will always be getting better at human tasks –
including human intelligence and human social skills –
until they fully master them.
As artist,
researcher,
and Jewish scholar, David Zvi Kalman, puts it,
– PAUSE –
“there is an ever-shrinking list of tasks
that only humans can do”
(Moment, Summer 2023, “Is Artificial Intelligence Good for Humanity?”).
– PAUSE –
This holiest of days
is a time for us to reflect on the meaning
of what it means to be human –
and humanity is reaching a kind of crisis point
with regard to what makes humans distinct
and different from other beings –
even non-biological ones.
Max Tegmark,
the AI scholar,
in his book Life 3.0
identifies three stages of life.
● Life 1.0 is the biological stage.
These beings have the ability to survive
and replicate themselves.
This stage arrived on earth
about 13.8 billion years ago.
● Life 2.0 is the cultural stage.
Beings in this stage are able
to survive
and replicate themselves
and also to use knowledge
and mental systems
to process information
and make decisions.
We arrived here about 4 million years ago.
● Tegmark calls Life 3.0 the technological stage:
Beings in this stage
are able to survive and replicate;
they are able to use available information
to process and make decisions,
and,
crucially,
they are even able to redesign themselves –
that is, their bodies–
or, in this case,
their hardware.
AI researchers think
that Life 3.0 may arrive
in our lifetimes,
certainly in this century.
This means that soon
we will be entering an age
of machines
in which our whole conception of life,
the soul,
identity,
consciousness,
will,
and morality
will be called into question.
Machines are being built
to be able to learn,
design,
and make decisions.
(They already know how to build).
And, though we may not be surprised to learn
that machines may catch up with human intelligence,
what will it mean for us
and our world
that they will likely exceed it?
“Come on, Rabbi,” you say.
“We’ve been here before.
There is always some kind of
new technology.
Think about the industrial revolution
and the fear that automation
would take all the jobs.
Think of the advent of the internet.
We thought we would cease interacting in person.
That all the stores would close,
and our economy would collapse.
Remember Y2K?
Nothing really happened.
And, most recently,
our ramp up to Zoom
made us question the value
of being physically present.
What does it mean that I
can be virtually present
in multiple places
at the same time?
Wave to people online
When there is a new technology,
people always freak out,
and then ultimately come around
and see the benefits.
Is this time any different?
Many AI researchers ask these very questions:
Is this time like
the invention of the printing press,
changing our relationship to text,
literacy,
and mass communication;
or is it more like
the Copernican Revolution,
fundamentally changing the way
that we understand the role
and uniqueness
of humans in the universe?
Will this be the beginning
of our understanding of human intelligence
as just one kind of intelligence
that is out there?
The Swedish philosopher,
Nick Bostrom,
believes that this time is fundamentally different.
He writes,
– PAUSE –
“You could compare it to the Industrial Revolution,
but that might even underplay it.
Maybe compare it to
the rise of the human species in the first place.
It could be the last invention that
we humans will ever need to make;
the superintelligence [of AI]
would be doing the rest of the inventing
much better than we can”
(Moment, Summer 2023, “Is Artificial Intelligence Good for Humanity?”).
– PAUSE –
The question of what makes us human
is getting harder to answer.
And the issue of whether or not AI can become
a “person”
becomes murky.
As, my colleague Rabbi Geoff Mitelman,
of the organization Sinai and Synapses,
puts the question,
does AI have a neshama – a soul?
On the face of it,
we want to say,
‘no, of course no;’
but the question suggests >>
we may need to start thinking more deeply
about what makes up the human soul >>
and human consciousness >>
in the first place.
If there can be another kind of consciousness,
then what makes ours distinctly human?
Humans can be seen in our tradition
as the first form of artificial intelligence:
Kalman,
among others,
points out that
we can understand Adam
as the first artificial intelligence:
God breathed life into a lump of clay,
– a grouping of molecules –
that utilized its structure
to develop intelligence.
An important moral issue that we need to consider
is how to identify the moral status of AI.
Does sophisticated AI have personhood?
Should it?
Do machines operating AI systems have rights?
Do they have liabilities?
Who is at fault
when a self-driving car gets into an accident?
I know what you are thinking:
That’s ridiculous.
They are not human.
But corporations have personhood under the law.
What if we are coming
to the end of the age
when intelligence
was the marker of human exceptionalism?
What happens when AI
outperforms us
in intelligence tasks,
problem-solving,
creativity,
and even the building of social connections?
If it is intelligent,
is it a life form?
We have historically defined life as
biologically based.
But why?
Perhaps that definition
will become an outmoded way
of understanding existence.
Author Etgar Keret points out that AI is,
– PAUSE –
“going to expose the meaninglessness of our existence.
We will not be able to define our purpose >>
by our ability to contribute to the world,
because our contribution won’t be needed” (ibid).
– PAUSE –
In other words,
more and more
of what we do as humans
will be done better
by artificial intelligence.
– PAUSE –
Many thinkers have ably grappled >>
with the meaning of being human,
and some of their thoughts >>
are germane to this discussion.
Contemporary philosopher
Mary Anne Warren
defines humanness through five traits:
1. Consciousness or sentience.
This refers to the ability to have
conscious experiences,
including the ability
to feel pain.
The feeling of pain is necessary,
for if one cannot experience pain,
one surely cannot act with knowledge
of how others live in the world.
2. Reason
This is our ability
not just to make rational decisions,
but also to compare various rational paths
and choose one that meets the specific,
often ineffable needs
of the situation.
There may be more than one way to respond
to a grieving person,
for example,
but, according to Warren,
reason is required
if we are to assess what approach
meets the needs of the moment,
situation,
relationships,
or persons involved.
3. Self-motivated activity.
A person can direct their own actions –
we can make decisions for ourselves.
And we can engage in the world >>
in sync with those decisions.
4. Communication.
We are able to express our thoughts
and feelings,
and we are able to interpret those of others
as they are expressed.
5. Self-awareness.
We understand ourselves as conscious,
sentient,
and wakeful
to our environment and reality
(Matrix fantasies aside).
For Warren,
these traits of personhood are pre-requisites for >>
perceiving morality >>
and acting as a moral agent.
Another thoughtful approach to personhood and humanness
comes from philosopher Edmund Husserl.
Husserl’s conception of personhood says that >>
we each have a sphere of mine-ness
in which we look at the world >>
through our own spheres;
We recognize that the world is our world,
each of us,
because we are the ones doing the perceiving.
I am looking through my eyes;
feeling through my senses;
Moving with my body.
Further,
Each of us recognizes others in the world,
others just like me –
that is,
others who are also themselves >>
looking through their eyes >>
at the same things I am looking at,
in the same world that I occupy.
We are all capital “I”s.
As in Warren’s thinking,
for Husserl,
it is empathy
that rouses our moral self.
When I see other selves like myself,
I will treat them
with the same humanity
that I treat myself
and that I want others
to do for me.
Empathy is fundamental
To our humanity.
A Jewish thinker who weighs in on >>
this central issue of what makes us human persons >>
is Martin Buber.
One of his most well-known ideas teaches
that what makes us human
is our ability to have
I-Thou encounters,
as he describes in his book
Ich und Du,
I and You.
An I-You relationship
is a mode of being in which you
are fully present fully with another,
fully in relation with them, and
At that moment,
putting aside all experiences of objects,
of what we think of as mine.
All objectiveness is set aside,
and we encounter the other
face-to-face.
– SIGNIFICANT PAUSE –
I don’t have an answer to the question
of what makes us human,
at least not one that I believe
will stand the test of time
Likely, on next Yom Kippur,
even though I will be fasting,
I would need to eat my words.
Because, you see,
developments in generative AI capability
are changing so quickly
that our ideas about humanness will be changing, too.
It is hard to see,
as Wayne Gretzky said of hockey,
not where the puck is,
but where the puck is going.
So the answers to our question,
“What makes us human?”
will itself develop
as humanity and AI develop,
Together,
over time.
But on this Day of Awe,
I want us to think about
the things we value
about humanness.
Kalman points out that
humans may find we are valuable simply
in and of ourselves.
In the same way that
we are each created with a divine spark –
an ineffable and uncanny fire
that causes us to be –
so are we precious and important
in our own right –
much as a life partner or spouse is special
because of the unique commitment and relationship
that we make with them.
Even if there are,
or will be,
other forms of life,
other life forms –
that can do many of the things that we can –
perhaps even better than we –
this does not obviate the meaning of
human living.
We do not need to be >>
the only ones with a particular trait >>
for us to matter.
Our emotional worlds,
our goal-setting,
our relationships,
our insight,
our wisdom . . .
all these are muddied by machine capabilities,
but they remain key ingredients
in what we value about ourselves.
NOW WHAT?
This is the season of teshuvah.
We spend these days asking
deep questions about our moral stature,
our choices,
and our deeds.
We know we have
a moral duty to each other,
to the world,
and to God –
however we understand God.
It remains, for now,
uniquely true
that the need we have
to reflect on our deeds
and to transform through repentance,
to seek forgiveness
and to pursue the guidance of our moral compasses,
are treasured aspects of human being.
My time here at KI has just begun,
yet some of you have already had the chance >>
to celebrate or remember with me >>
through a life cycle event.
Whether it was a wedding,
a funeral,
an unveiling,
or a b. mitzvah,
we have begun to build
spiritual connections,
And a spiritual community,
together.
In a conversation about AI,
Rabbi Mitelman pointed out something very wise:
We rabbis like to think that
we are both authentic and creative; v
valid and original.
But, the truth is,
there are only so many permutations of Jewish liturgy
that we can bring
to these moments of meaning.
The truth is,
what we bring –
and here I am speaking of not just clergy,
but rather of any of us,
of all of us –
is the human presence with which we show up.
The uniqueness of how each of us
is
when with the other.
Though our tools will become more complex
and more integrated into our lives
in the near future,
we,
as individuals,
as humans,
bring a presence of soul
that exists with its own, sacred meaning.
The Golem is being revived.
Its forehead bears the mark of truth –
Emet – once again.
And it is likely that this time we cannot erase the aleph.
But,
though all the letters of truth
shine forth from his brow,
he cannot hold the only truth,
the whole truth.
We hold … our humanity … as sacred.
