The Guardrails of Artificial Intelligence

As the story goes, in a Jewish village there was a shochet, a person officially certified as competent to kill cattle and poultry in the manner prescribed by Jewish law. The process requires slitting the animal’s throat in a way to reduce its suffering and drain blood from its carcass. Jewish law requires that this is done by a human being. No part of the process may be mechanized. The shochet must even sharpen his knives by hand.

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In this case, the village shochet wept each time he slaughtered an animal. People in the village recognized him by the marks on his face caused the constant tears as he performed his job. At one point, a village leader approach the local rabbi and demanded that he convince the shochet to find another occupation. “It is cruel to stand by and allow this man to continue this work when it causes him so much emotional grief.”

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The rabbi asked, “Would we really want someone to perform this work who did not feel such grief?”

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We believe that artificial intelligence and machine learning (AI/ML) has only recently advanced to the degree that very complex intellectual processes can be performed by computers. Bear in mind, however, in the late 1990s, IBM designed a computer that gave a world chess champion a proverbial run for his money at the game, and even beat him on occasion.

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To avoid being summarily dismissed as an aging Luddite, allow me to summarize my interest in advanced technology. My early career included several years in Silicon Valley, working for a company on the cutting edge of technologies we take for granted today. As a business school professor, I have had the opportunity to participate in training on predictive analytics. My university research has led to the development of startup company that will use AI/ML to address what my co-investigator partners and I believe are gaps in clinical trial studies. I am unable to elaborate at this point.

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Unfortunately, technology is often weaponized by ageists. That said, I associate with young writers who are drafting novels and screenplays in hopes of creating something meaningful and lasting. They are now told that much of their creative process could be mimicked by AI. Some of them are so-called “digital natives”. And they express concern, as creatives.

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Frictional unemployment is a hallmark of post-industrial society. Every economics student learns it is not a bad thing. Buggy whip makers became automobile parts makers. You likely are familiar with the trope. But what do we do about technology that aspires to displace human beings in so many areas of employment and so rapidly?

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Some believe we need to pump the brakes on this technology before it veers toward moral dysfunction. Others promote it with messianic fervor. The prospect of automatically producing something that require craftmanship, creativity, education, research, and deep thinking, without having to apply them, is heady.

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I led this short article with the story of the shochet only to consider what happens when the human soul is removed from any process. AI/ML can approximate human intelligence but not compassion, empathy, or morality.

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I believe the human soul is the guard rail. The question is where it needs to be placed.