An 1859 Fight Over How to Make Matzah Has Lessons About the Threat of AI Today

The existence of AIs has prompted all manner of soul-searching about the nature of humanity.
©Pixel-Shot/stock.adobe.com
©Pixel-Shot/stock.adobe.com
Dr. David Zvi Kalman is a research fellow in the Shalom Hartman Institute’s Kogod Research Center. David Zvi works on issues of technology, religion, and art. He holds a position as Senior Advisor for Sinai and Synapses and is the host of the Belief in the Future podcast. He is the owner of Print-O-Craft Press, an independent publishing house that has released books including Jessica Deutsch’s The Illustrated Pirkei Avot and Noam Sienna’s A Rainbow Thread:

“In the last few months the world has been dazzled by an astonishing sequence of AI systems capable of performing all kinds of difficult tasks — writing code, composing poetry, generating artwork, passing exams — with a level of competence that rivals or exceeds what humans can do. The existence of these AIs has prompted all manner of soul-searching about the nature of humanity. It has also made many people wonder which human tasks are about to be taken over by machines.

The capabilities of these AIs are new and revolutionary, but the story of machines taking over human jobs is not. In Jewish history the most important story of that transition has to do with matzah, and it’s a story that carries important lessons for the present day.”

Read the full article on JTA

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