Is AI Good for the Jews?: The Canary in the Algorithm: What Starts with the Jews Never Stays There

Is AI Good for the Jews?While the world debates the economic disruptions of AI-lost jobs, autonomous machines, surveillance states-a far more consequential crisis is unfolding. Teaming up with social media, AI is supercharging our march toward delusion and chaos. While machines may one day take over the economy, right now they are taking over reality itself. In a post-October 7 world, the consequences are already visible. Deepfakes spread instantly, algorithms reward outrage, and ancient hatreds find modern distribution. And as history has shown with chilling regularity, when the social fabric begins to fray, Jews feel it first.Craig R. Frank traces the arc of technological change and its impact on Jewish life, from Gutenberg's printing press, which mass-produced both the Talmud and the blood libel, to radio and film, which carried both Jewish genius and Nazi propaganda into the world's living rooms. Each revolution brought opportunity, and conversely, each brought new tools for hatred. AI may offer the greatest opportunity and the gravest risk yet.Drawing on history, cultural insight, and an unflinching look at the post-October 7 digital collapse, Frank shows how the social consequences of AI, with its bias baked into training data, fabricated narratives, and algorithmically amplified tribalism, threaten not just Jewish communities, but every vulnerable group in society. What starts with the Jews never stays there.Is AI Good for the Jews? is a clarion call for regulation, communal awareness, and moral accountability, so we can stop the algorithm from deciding what's true, who belongs, and who doesn't.The canary is already singing. Are we listening? Read more