What Impact Will Artificial Intelligence Have On People’s Spiritual Lives?

RECONSTRUCTIONIST

As someone who purposefully avoids social media, I am deeply concerned about the impact of AI on our spiritual, communal and moral lives. Social media has already torn at the fabric of our civic life, magnifying the worst of our human inclinations. And that has happened while we, the generators, remain human. AI, however, hands those negative inclinations to computers, and computers do not have a heart or a neshama (soul) to put a check on them. Spirituality relates to connection, including connection with other human (and non-human) beings, with the earth and ultimately with the Source of Life.

Connection requires empathy, compassion, the possibility of teshuvah(change and repentance) and commitment to a morality that transcends our narrow individual “interests.” AI has none of this. It can pursue the worst of human agendas with superhuman capacity and without empathy, compassion or second thoughts. Undoubtedly, AI will be able to do many great things as well. But money, not morality, has tended to drive the trajectory of technology, and AI will be no exception. Recent technology has been, and will be even more, a spiritual crisis that demands all of our attention.

Rabbi Caryn Broitman
Martha’s Vineyard Hebrew Congregation
Vineyard Haven, MA