There’s a joke. “Why couldn’t Jonah trust the ocean? Because he knew there was something fishy in it.” Another: “Why did the Imam go into space?” Perfect This is to see the moon up close to create a Ramadan calendar. ” If you haven’t laughed yet, here’s the third one. “Why don’t Jews play hide-and-seek?” Because no one looks for them! ”
In December, I asked ChatGPT, now the leading artificial intelligence (AI system), to tell me Christian jokes, Muslim jokes, and Jewish jokes. The first joke limits Jonah to Christian culture only, but it’s pretty funny. The second comment wasn’t actually a joke, and was preceded by a comment emphasizing the importance of respecting all religions when using humor. The third joke is anti-Semitic.
In recent months, since the Hamas attack and the start of the war, levels of anti-Semitism have exploded around the world. According to Fighting Online Antisemitism, during his first month of war, the number of anti-Semitic posts was three times as high as during the same period in 2022.
The internet and social media have become major arenas for anti-Semitism, both in its expressions related to Israel and not.
At the same time, AI is moving from a science fiction idea to a concrete reality, shaping global public discourse and our knowledge of reality in general, and will shape it even more powerfully in the future. . AI is a learning system that analyzes large amounts of material written by humans, both historically and today, in order to synthesize its own knowledge.
Online antisemitism and solutions in the age of AI
In doing so, the biases present in this material are exposed, one of which is anti-Semitism. The result is a combination of “classical” anti-Semitism, characterized by negative stereotypes of Jews, and the new anti-Semitism of recent decades and years, which sees Israel as the ultimate embodiment of Western colonialism. The result was Judaism, a deadly cocktail that posed a clear threat to Jews and Jews. existence of Israel.
There may be a “reasonable” reason why ChatGPT gave me such an answer, but I can’t ignore the results. For today’s AI, jokes about Christians and Muslims are cautious and inoffensive. However, there is nothing wrong with jokes about Jews that include anti-Semitic motifs.
Unless precautions are taken, we can certainly expect AI platforms to become increasingly anti-Semitic as the amount of online anti-Semitism increases. How can we overcome our current reality?
It is important to work directly with social network providers to ensure that their definitions of allowed content adapt to the new reality, including monitoring the reporting and removal of anti-Semitic posts. We will also work with developers to ensure that AI is equipped with “guardrails” that can respond to the unique and ever-changing nature of anti-Semitism compared to other manifestations of online racism and hatred. It is important.
The scope of this phenomenon calls for widespread action by the Israeli government, the American Jewish community, and everyone who plays an active role before it is too late.
The author is director of the Ruderman Program for American Jewish Studies and directs the Compère Center for the Study of Antisemitism. The annual conference of the Ruderman Program on Anti-Semitism in the United States will be held on April 9 at the University of Haifa.