A second asifa addressing the growing impact of artificial intelligence was held Thursday night in Lakewood, drawing senior rabbinic leadership and continuing a discussion that began earlier this week.
The gathering focused on concerns surrounding AI-driven calling, texting, and content generation, and followed an initial asifah that drew dozens of leading rabbanim and roshei yeshiva, where the gedolim called for a yom taanis u’tefillah over the threats posed by AI. A date has not been set for when that will take place.
Thursday night’s meeting featured remarks from Rav Elyah Ber Wachtfogel, Rav Malkiel Kotler and Rav Yisroel Newman, who addressed both the technological and hashkafic implications of artificial intelligence.
During his remarks, Rav Yisroel Newman warned that artificial intelligence poses dangers he described as more severe than those associated with the general internet. Rav Malkiel addressed the use of AI in Torah learning, stating that Torah learned through AI-generated means would not warrant a bracha, characterizing such a bracha as a berachah levatalah.
The asifah was attended by a wide range of senior roshei yeshiva and rabbinic leaders, including Rav Mendel Slomowitz, Rav Michel Handelsman, Rav Aryeh Sherwinter, Rav Menachem Mintz, Rav Velvel Mintz, and Rav Dovid Mermelstein.
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4 Responses
All I see in this board committee are Rabbonim who wouldn’t know AI from a hole in the wall.
I understand the need to control AI.
Of course their input is crucial but you need tech savy ehrliche people majorly involved, who actually know what they’re talking about!
I am trying to understand how the honored Roshei Yeshiva are Poskining the Sugya of AI without any first hand knowledge or use. Like any other technology AI is a Golem. It can be used by Hachamim for gathering and sifting through useful and correct information or it can be used by fools to lead them to incorrect information and mistaken conclusions. I have been using it daily for 3 months in my writing as a fact checker, a grammar checker, a source finder, a history savant, and it has helped me correct dozens of mistakes and improve my writing. Should we stop using cars and telephones because they can also be used for destructive purposes? One of the biggest Gaonim of the last Dor told me there is no such thing as a Maase Satan .. only people who misuse the Bria can Kavyachol turn Hashem’s world which is Kulo Tov into a Maase Satan. Let the Gedolim write guidelines for the proper way to use AI instead of trying to stop this ocean change in civilization
Here we go again
Waiting for the “comments”
Any transcript of the discussion!?