Should I be afraid that AI will replace me?

Rabbi Landau answers boldly: “If AI can replace you, it should. Anything about you that AI can replace is not you.” If a machine can copy it, it was never your deepest value. If your value is only remembering facts, AI remembers more; if it is only writing reports, AI writes faster; if it is only repeating what everyone already knows, a computer can do that.

“The future doesn't need better copy and paste people,” he teaches. “It needs people who can see where others don't see. It needs courage, it needs judgment, it needs responsibility, it needs heart.”

He brings Hillel's teaching, “Bimakom she'ein anashim, hishtadel lihiyos ish,” in a place where there are no true people, strive to be one, and applies it to our world: “In a world full of copies, become an original. In a world where machines can imitate intelligence, become someone with wisdom. In a world where AI can produce answers, become the person who asks questions nobody else thought to ask.” So don't compete with AI by becoming a machine. “Become more human.”

Going deeper: Rabbi Landau's teaching, level by level

Surface claim

Whatever AI can replace was never your deepest value.

Fear, vulnerability, or tension

A person fears that a machine will do his work faster and better. Rabbi Landau answers that competing on facts, reports and repetition is a race the machine will win.

Underlying need or longing

The world needs people who see where others don't, with courage, judgment, responsibility and heart.

What may be behind it

In A Soul at Peace, Rabbi Landau writes that what a machine can do belongs to the soul's “garments” of thought, speech and action, not to the soul itself.

Deepest human truth

Where there are no true people, strive to be one. Don't become more machine; become more human.

More questions from this teaching

• What does Hillel's teaching “where there are no people, strive to be a person” mean today?