The Robots Are Coming- Preparing for Artificial Intelligence

April 28, 2021

Career / Business

Yosef Newman, CPA was disconcerted. At a recent convention, one booth was offering demonstrations of a new artificial intelligence (AI) software for taxes. He’d been skeptical about the claims made in the banner over the booth until he’d actually seen the software in action. It was eerily brilliant. After a quick scan of a tax return, the software had spit out a very detailed analysis of tax projections for the upcoming year. More amazingly, it offered realistic and sophisticated ideas to lower the client’s bill, basically the kind of advice he offered his clients! He couldn’t help wondering, “Is AI going to take over the job market and get us all fired?”

New Times, New Tools

Technology has long been the catalyst for major shifts in the labor market. Noach is mentioned as changing the world for the better by inventing the plow (Rashi, Bereishis 5:25); with it, the curse of Adam (b’zei’as apecha) and food shortages were minimized. Similarly, when properly utilized, AI can help those who learn to use it to their advantage. But unlike the plow, today’s new technology carries with it significant risks as well, both physical and spiritual. Dealing with AI will be one of the big challenges and opportunities of our time.

AI Basics

Here is my very non-scientific and shallow overview of AI (the type of explanation that’s often the most useful to non-techies like me). Computers that could “remember” information and calculate equations have been around since the 1930s. The original machines were essentially glorified calculators. But as their power improved exponentially, it became possible for computers to start “figuring” out things beyond lengthy yet simple mathematical problems. It’s almost like the distinction between chochmah (knowledge) and binah (understanding). When a computer crosses over from being simply a chacham to becoming a maven, we’ve got artificial intelligence.

A Very Early Example

Computers can’t really think, of course. However, AI can mimic intelligence by speedily comparing a new scenario to vast sets of stored data or experiences. A very early and simplified example of this capability is the checking of Sifrei Torah and other tashmishei kedushah via computers for skipped letters or words. First, the computer software stores images of exactly what the holy letters, words, and paragraphs are supposed to look like. It’s then a simple matter for the machine to compare what it spies in a camera attached to it with the version in its memory. If anything is added or missing, the software highlights it so the sofer can fix the issue.

Powered by Supercomputers

Checking for the accuracy of the 79,847 words written in a Sefer Torah is nothing compared to what AI can do now. Supercomputers today are fed entire libraries of data, including text, pictures, numbers, and sounds, to be used for comparative purposes. This has vastly expanded AI capabilities, and the astounding results are showing up in every field. And as more and more of the economy is run with an AI infrastructure, the businesses and employees that best navigate these technologies will have a significant advantage. For things requiring memory and pattern recognition in huge data sets, people can’t compete with computers.

The AI Doctor is Always In

Take medicine, for example. Within certain segments, AI is excellent at complex diagnosis. By feeding many thousands of radiological images to a computer, which will be used in conjunction with an expert diagnosis by a team of doctors, the computer itself can become an expert! Just as it does with the words on a parchment, the computer compares a new X-ray to those in its vast database to pick up any irregularities. Taking this concept a step further, doctors are now training a computer program to diagnose serious COVID cases using a database of coughing sounds! Because software can quickly draw on an endless supply of comparisons, computers will be better than doctors at some diagnostic tasks in the near future—if they aren’t already.

AI Dominating Finance

AI domination over finance is even more advanced. For decades, cutting-edge investment firms have been using computers to invest automatically based on patterns picked up in vast esoteric data sets. Computers may note that after the weather in Somalia notches up by two degrees on a Monday, the price of palm oil ticks up for a few minutes. Even if no one knows why, the computers are programmed to trade and produce profit from such a price tick. It sounds far-fetched, but the top AI hedge funds earn fantastic returns, far beyond what even the best human investors have. Perhaps it’s not surprising, then, that already in 2018, 25% of Goldman Sachs employees were computer engineers.

Jobs Are Here to Stay

Every industry and company will be turning more and more to those who know how to use technology to get things done much more efficiently. But this doesn’t mean that employment has to fall or that you need to become a computer engineer. Think about it. Despite all this movement toward technology, the job market has been tighter than ever (with the exception of COVID-related disruptions). And Yosef, with a little bit of attention and training in the use of emerging technologies, may find that he can use AI software to become more valuable to employers and clients than he ever was.

The Growth of Cyber Challenges

The same technology that makes certain tasks and jobs obsolete raises other tasks and jobs to higher levels of sophistication. An accountant with a spreadsheet is 100 times more productive and valuable than one without. The same will likely be true for an accountant, doctor, or investor who uses advanced AI tools. But the growing digitization trend will require ever more comfort with integrating technology in our lives. Maintaining cybersecurity, personal privacy, safe environments for children, and general mental equanimity is already quite difficult. As more and more spheres of life are dominated by technology, these challenges will continue to grow. As frum Jews who invest much effort into maintaining our purity and insularity, the downsides of constant technological integration are vastly magnified. We will need to step up our efforts in a big way to deal with the fast-shifting landscape. And as Torah life survived and thrived through every imaginable scenario, it will do the same in a time of AI too.