Chevre, this week’s parsha is Shelach (שלח). And it happens to be both my and my wife’s Bar/Bat Mitzvah Parsha. Fun fact, we had our Bar and Bat Mitzvah’s on the same Shabbat a 7 miles apart (according to Google Maps).
When we use AI, there is always the risk of hallucinations. That the AI will make something up, be untruthful. As people we need to be critical of what it tells us, verify the output and results. In research, we ask for sources and go read those sources. Or have another AI summarize the sources. I recently asked the OU AI, Ohrbit, a question. It responded with, what looked like a great answer. But then it added a nugget that was surprising. I was asking the difference between Ani and Anochi in usage in the Torah. It told me the differences were in the emphasis on the subject or predacate of the sentance. But then it said Anochi was potentially Egyptian in source. I asked it for sources, which I then put into Chat GPT to help me find in Sefaria and used Google Translate to translate them to English so I could quickly skim. (long story short, there is a Midrash that says Anochi may be Egyptian in origin - Hadar Zekenim on Exodus 20:2).
In the parsha this week, Moshe sends out the scouts to explore the land. They do not return to him to report, they return and report to the people. 10 of the 12 report that they were small compared to inhabitants and that they had great walls. These things were not hallucinations, but the important thing was the interpretation of what they saw. Because they had fortified cities could mean that they were afraid or could mean that they would be difficult to overcome. Because there were giants could mean they were powerful or it could mean “the greater they are, the harder they fall”. It’s the perception of your own abilities against those of the target that was important here.
We can use AI to ask questions, shorten cycle times on coding and help us with problems. But it’s the human insight and interepretation that is important to bring to the answers we are given. Does this make sense? Is it going in circles? Or is it making something up? When I was younger (I think it was high school, but it could have been college) there was an emphasis on critical thinking. Looking at the material in front of you and asking questions. This is important to do with the latest tools we are using. And as we say in AWS to all our customers, test everything.
Shabbat Shalom.