AI: How will the newest technology impact the oldest hate?

On occasion I have submitted articles for publication only to have them rejected because I included pictures that violated copyright rules. When I wrote Antisemitism: A hatred like no other, I expected no problem because I included a photo that I myself had taken of the Leaning Tower of Pisa. However, when I was unable to get the picture to fit the formatting guidelines, I enlisted the help of an imaging expert I knew. After struggling with it for a while, he told me that it was not doable. Shortly after, I was pleased to receive his email with a photo that matched the formatting guidelines. When I examined it more closely, however, I realized that the background, although similar, did not match the one in my original picture. Indeed, he had used Artificial Intelligence (AI) to generate the photo.

AI’s power and maturity are increasing by the day, and along with the advancements comes the inability for humans to distinguish between real content and fake content.

In the spirit of the age-old question, “But is it good for the Jews?”, AI begs the question: How will the world’s newest technology impact the world’s oldest hatred?

Because computers have already ‘learned’ that negative posts about Jews and Israel are effective at keeping users engaged for a longer period, they compound the problem by recommending similar posts.

The Combat Antisemitism Movement recently discovered a coordinated TikTok network of bogus AI-generated ‘rabbis’ that spewed antisemitic lies garnering more than 10 million likes. The report said, “The danger is clear. By masquerading as authentic Jewish voices, these ‘rabbis’ erode trust, normalize hatred, and incite real-world violence targeting Jews.”

Although AI can propagate false antisemitic material, the good news is that it can also be used to help detect and delete it.

In December, Rep. Sara Jacobs (D-CA) introduced a resolution stating that AI companies must deploy measures to prevent their software from contributing to the rise of antisemitism and harassment.

Because AI is only as accurate as the data it can search, it is important to identify the widespread inaccurate data that already exist online.

Providing information on almost any prominent person or topic and shaping the views of billions of people, Wikipedia is one of the most popular and trusted sources of data. However, a group of editors called the ‘Gang of 40’ manipulated facts to delegitimize Israel. Deborah Lipstadt, the former US special envoy to monitor and combat antisemitism, said, “I have pretty much lost faith in Wikipedia as anything resembling a neutral source.”

Today more than ever, Jewish history is rewritten while factual evidence is ignored.

A 1925 tourist guide to the Temple Mount recognized that it was the site of the Temple of King Solomon. It stated that in the seventh century Muslims occupied the site, building the Dome of the Rock and the Al-Aqsa Mosque. One might be surprised to learn that this guide was not written by Jews, but rather by the Muslim Waqf.

Moreover, many might be unaware that before the term ‘Palestinian’ referred to Arabs, there was a Palestinian Soccer Team, Palestine Airways, Palestinian Post, and Palestine Electric Company, all associated with Jews. In the 1939 Atlas there is a Palestinian flag that contains a Jewish star.

With the countless outrageous lies that proliferate on the internet, one can only imagine what AI will surmise if it finds the following accusations:

• Palestinians accused Israel of weaponizing wild boars against them, engineering special rats to attack Palestinians in Gaza, and training cows to spy on them.
• An Iranian cleric said that Jews have had access to genies since Davidic times, and Iran’s ex-military chief said that Israel sent lizards to spy on their nuclear program.
• In Egypt, when a shark killed one person and injured four, an Egyptian official said that Israel’s Mossad sent the shark.
• Hamas accused Israel of deploying ‘killer Zionist dolphins near Gaza.’

AI can answer many questions, but there are some that it will never be able to answer:

• How can a country avoid civilian casualties while eliminating terrorists who dress as civilians, use child soldiers, and fight from homes, hospitals, schools, and tunnels beneath civilians?
• How can you make peace with neighbors whose sole purpose in life is to kill you?

Yet, there is always hope that AI will figure out patterns that many humans have not.

In 1947 British Foreign Secretary Ernest Bevin, citing irreconcilable differences between Arabs and Jews, spoke of the infeasibility of partitioning the land. He said that the Jews’ priority was to have a state of their own, and the Arabs’ priority was to ensure that the Jews did not have a state. “For the Arabs”, Bevin said, “the essential point of principle is to resist to the last the establishment of Jewish sovereignty.”

Since then, both the Jews and the Arabs (now rebranded as Palestinians) have proven that Bevin’s assessments were spot on.

Because the Jewish people wanted a state, they took a malaria-infested swampland and, with a mixture of backbreaking labor and remarkable ingenuity, stunningly turned it into one of the most advanced and successful countries in the world.

Because the Palestinians were not particularly interested in having a state, decade after decade they rejected offers, while embracing a strategy of war and terrorism. When the Palestinians were handed the coastal enclave of Gaza, along with billions of dollars, they did not attempt to build a state. Instead, they used it as a launching pad against Israel. Indeed, they were willing to die, and many did, trying to destroy the Jewish state.

Unfortunately, too many elected officials in the US, Europe, and beyond still have not learned from a pattern of history that has repeated for 80 years.

As Psychologist B.F. Skinner said, “The real question is not whether machines think, but whether men do.”