Of DALL·E 2, Imagen AI and The Unity of Creation
Tech Tribe Dispatch 154
💡 Think:
This week the Internet has been taken by the surreal AI images made with OpenAI’s DALL·E 2 and Google’s Imagen AI. Using natural language text, these prototypes have shown that they can parse seemingly random sentences to create photorealistic pictures. Type “A cute corgi lives in a house made out of sushi” and low and behold the AI spits out just that: A cute corgi in a house made out of sushi. Perhaps you prefer ‘an astronaut riding a horse drawn in the style of Andy Warhol’? There you go.
Of course there is a darker side to the these images, as some have pointed out, they seem to specifically focus on images that avoid the potential pitfalls of AI driven projects. Readers of this newsletter are well aware that any algorithm is only as good as its data set.
Of course, there’s another lesson to be learned from these images.
As some of the promotional material reads, the AI can create ‘photo realistic images that have never been seen before.’ And to a point, it’s true. I doubt teddy bears shopping for groceries in the style of ukiyo-e have ever before been seen. But of course, all of these digital creations plucked from the aether remain tethered to our own preexisting relationship with reality. Nothing truly new is being created here, rather a myriad of existing components are being remixed in new ways.
The Alter Rebbe, the founder of the Chabad movement, writes in Shaar Hayichud Vehaemunah, the second section of his magnum opus the Tanya, that G-d’s exalted nature is far more sublime than any human description could ever capture. Thus, when we describe G-d as wise, kind and other such terms as codified in Jewish tradition, none of these terms can truly capture the essence of G-d. Rather, we are trying to describe the unfathomable through the lens of our own existence. In his words:
“And as Maimonides (of blessed memory) stated, “This [form of unity wherein G‑d’s knowledge and so on is one with G‑d Himself] is beyond the capacity of the mouth to express, beyond the capacity of the ear to hear, and beyond the capacity of the heart of man to apprehend clearly.” For a person visualizes in his mind all the concepts which he wishes to conceive and understand—all as they are within himself.
For instance, if he wishes to describe the essence of will, or the essence of wisdom, or of understanding, or of knowledge, or the essence of the attribute of kindness and mercy and the like, he visualizes them all as they are within himself.
But in truth, the Holy One, blessed be He, is “high and exalted,” and “holy is His Name”(The Hebrew word for holy, kadosh, implies a separation from creation. Thus even his name, not his essence, but rather the moniker by which he interacts with us, is exalted beyond our frame of reference).
That is to say, He is Holy and separated many myriads of degrees of separations ad infinitum, above the quality, type or kind of praises and exaltation which creatures could grasp and conceive in their minds.”
🏃 DO:
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📚 Read:
📅 How the Jewish calendar got coded — and how ingenious coders made it happen.
🤳 How the internet gets people to plagiarize each other. Are you “hopping on a trend” or are you plagiarizing?
🪦 Many Jewish World War II Soldiers Had Christian Burials. That’s being corrected.
🕯️ Remember:
The mind struggles to find words to describe the destruction of 21 precious souls in Uvalde, Texas. From the Jewish perspective, so sacred is one life, that qualitatively nothing can outweigh it. Every life is a world unto itself, the precious expression of Divine purpose in this world. Thus the destruction of 21 lives is not merely a mass murder, a quantitate increase in death, but rather a world destroyed over and over again. Twenty one times.
Words escape me how to capture the enormity of this tragedy, one that is all too real and all too common.
What I can say is that, we are assured that in the end, light will push away darkness. We exist in this world to make it an abode for the Divine, so that we can see the precious holiness of other human beings. To get there, we must smash the idols of metal and plastic that promise false safety, but in the end only destroy. We must center goodness and kindness at the core of our day, embrace the awe-inspiring One in our lives - and do good in every way we can….
Until our rivers of tears can be wiped away and the whole world is filled with knowledge of G-d, like water covers the face of sea.
🔥 Lit:
This week, light Shabbat candles in NYC at 7:59pm
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