So Skver has banned ChatGPT and other AI chatbots, joining Italy:
To quote Yeshiva World:
“The severity of the danger is not yet clear and obvious to everyone,” the letter states, noting that it poses, in the eyes of the rabbanim, a critical danger to frum yidden.
AI chatbots provide completely unfiltered access to apikorsus, lewd and perverse content, and all the issurim of “lo sasuru acharei levavchem,’ the kol koreh says.
I guess I’ve been using ChatGPT wrong — I’ve been using it to write my Python programs. :)
But kidding aside, they are against open access to the Internet, so this is similar. It was trained on the unfiltered Internet, and I’m sure one could ask it to produce smut, or to summarize the Documentary Hypothesis. Or one could even ask it to explain something and it could automatically tap into this sort of text and when it generates an answer.
Thus:
Josh: How can we account for the discrepancy between how the Aron Habris is described in Devarim and Shemot?
ChatGPT: The Aron Habrit, also known as the Ark of the Covenant, is described in both Devarim (Deuteronomy) and Shemot (Exodus), but the descriptions are not identical. There are a few ways to account for these discrepancies:
Different perspectives: The two books may be describing the Aron Habrit from different perspectives. For example, Devarim may be describing the Aron Habrit as it appeared during the time of Moses, while Shemot may be describing it as it was constructed under the direction of Bezalel and Oholiab.
Different audiences: The two books may be written for different audiences, and the authors may have emphasized different aspects of the Aron Habrit depending on the intended audience. For example, Devarim is addressed to the Israelites as they prepare to enter the Promised Land, while Shemot is addressed to the Israelites during their time in the wilderness.
Literary conventions: The descriptions of the Aron Habrit may be influenced by different literary conventions in the two books. For example, Devarim tends to use more poetic language than Shemot, which may account for some of the differences in description.
Oral tradition: The descriptions of the Aron Habrit may have been passed down through oral tradition, and different versions of the tradition may have developed over time. This could explain why the descriptions in Devarim and Shemot are not identical.
Overall, the differences in the descriptions of the Aron Habrit can be accounted for by a variety of factors, including differences in perspective, audience, literary conventions, and oral tradition. However, despite these differences, both books agree that the Aron Habrit was a sacred object that played an important role in the religious life of the Israelites.
I suppose that item (4) is akin to the the Documentary Hypothesis, which personally I think is not at all a good explanation for the “discrepancy” between an elaborate description of a chest made of acacia wood covered inside and outside with gold, and a brief description of a chest made of acacia wood. With enough prompting, I reluctantly got it to explicitly propose the apikorsish explanation.
Regardless, I understand, if they want to block out the open Internet, they would also want to block out ChatGPT.
This also reminds me of Elli Fischer’s Purim Pashkevil…
AI Alignment is about making artificial intelligence accord with our ethics. So people don’t like how ChatGPT leans politically left. Or is prevented from not only telling you how to hotwire a car, but from writing a paean to Donald Trump. I could imagine a world with different alignment skins put on top of their artificial intelligence. Maybe Skver could get in the game… :)