AI 2025-2065: 40 years in the Desert
In two weeks we will read Parasha Nitzavim, hearing Moses declare that our fate in the Promised Land will depend on the choices we make every day. If we keep the covenant with God, we will be blessed; if we do not, we will be cursed. Moses knew that we can't choose once and then coast. We choose badly, then choose better, then choose better again. The covenant isn't a contract we sign--it's a daily practice.
I think we need this framework now because we're about to enter our own desert. Not a physical one, but the collective wandering that comes when much of what we know about work, creativity, and human purpose gets turned upside down by powerful AI.
By powerful AI, I mean a machine smarter than the smartest human in most fields, including biology, medicine, cybersecurity, mathematics, and AI research itself. Unlike humans, millions of copies of powerful AI can run in parallel. We may see an economic golden age for a time, but eventually machines will do most work faster than most humans.
When Moses freed us from slavery in Egypt, we had to learn how to be free. We complained about the food, built a golden calf, and panicked at every setback. We also received the Ten Commandments, built the Mishkan, and established courts of justice. The forty years in the desert weren't always pleasant, but they were training. We needed time to develop the stories, laws, and habits that would let us thrive in abundance rather than destroy ourselves with it.
For just one example, the Talmud teaches that judges must have seven qualities: wisdom, humility, fear of God, hatred of money, love of truth, love of people, and a good reputation. They were job requirements for anyone wielding power over others' lives. Now we're creating machines that will have more power than any judge in history. At minimum, we would do well to require AI systems to embody most of these qualities.
For Moses, the blessing and curse depended on keeping our covenant with God. Had we entered the promised land with the habits we had in Egypt, we may not have been able to handle freedom. Similarly, should we enter a world with thinking machines with our current habits, we might not be able to handle our new freedom. Three thousand years ago we had direct help from God to recommend laws and practices. Today it is up to us. The curse would be if we forge ahead without building new laws, habits, and understanding. The blessing would be if we use this transition to choose what we want to preserve about being human and what we're willing to evolve.
Deserts are hard. But we've walked through one before and come out stronger. If we do this right, our children will look back on these forty years as the time we learned how to be human in a world of thinking machines. At the end, I hope we will realize that we have built new stories, laws, and habits that will let us flourish for the next three thousand years.
