Avot, AI translation and interpretation

“AI is changing how we’ll work with Torah texts”. This is the title of an article posted to Anash.org on 19 June. It reads, in relevant part:

“The world of AI is still in the infancy of its potential, especially in relation to successfully formulating Torah thoughts and plunging the depths of meforshim and Chassidus. As time passes and AI’s abilities and skills are finely tuned, it will be capable of adding an astounding level of understanding and perspective to our learning …”

The article relates that Rabbi Rayi Stern and his team at Aitorah.org are currently working on AI-generated translations of Pirkei Avot in 12 different languages. It continues:

“Within each language, users can choose a classic translation, a free translation, or other options. In order to keep improving, they encourage users to give feedback—including any suggested edits to the translations, input, or compliments on what they enjoyed of the text. The team is very particular about every step of the output.

“Our goal is to make sure that a responsible and safe approach is adhered to; that all necessary checks and balances are in place—on both a computer and a human level,” a member of the team shared. “With technology able to do so much, the challenge becomes how to use it best. The English translations were fully edited, and extensive work went into the process, in order to ensure consistency…”

This sounds like a fascinating exercise, a sort of multidimensional hafoch bah vehafoch bah (“turn it around and turn it around”, per Ben Bag Bag, Avot 5:26). So long as we recognise borders, never lose sight of the original words of the Tannaim and measure the products of AI against the yardsticks of two millennia of tradition, we should have nothing to lose and plenty to gain.

There are of course certain caveats. One is that, just as there is no single Hebrew text of the entire tractate that has gained universal approval, there is no single English translation that can claim the exclusive right to be accepted as authoritative. The Hebrew does not change, but English does. Variations as between English and American vocabulary, grammar and syntax can be significant, as well as variations generated by changing shades of meaning over the course of time (for example, two hundred years ago it was quite normal to refer to an employer as a “master” and an employee as a “servant”). There are also mishnayot that have never been properly understood even in the original Hebrew (for example Rabbi Yishmael’s teaching at Avot 3:16: הֱוֵי קַל לְרֹאשׁ, וְנֽוֹחַ לְתִשְׁחֽוֹרֶת). But a caveat is not an impenetrable barrier to reaching new understandings of old teachings.

I’m curious to know how many Avot Today readers share my enthusiasm for this project and my optimism that it will bear valuable fruit. Please comment!

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