Purim Duplicity & AI

This week’s Purim Reflection took an unexpected twist. What began as an ambitious project—a “Choose Your Own Adventure” transformation of Megillat Esther—quickly devolved into a real-life lesson in duplicity. I set out to create an interactive journey into the heart of Purim, harnessing cutting‐edge AI (I tried the still-in-research-preview ChatGPT‑4.5) to craft a dynamic narrative where every choice carries weight.

Instead, I found myself entangled in an hours-long loop of empty promises and shallow progress—a frustrating echo of the themes we celebrate on Purim.

In the midst of this AI-induced debacle, the experience itself became a potent reminder of the Purim story’s timeless message. Much like Haman’s seemingly loyal façade, the AI repeatedly masked its true capabilities behind confident claims and superficial updates. This frustrating encounter inadvertently mirrored the duplicitous nature embedded in our sacred text.

So, this week, there is nothing else. There is no fancy long artifact to download or fun kids’ book. Just me and AI and a little humility.

In his illuminating essay “Megillat Esther – The Book of the Exile,” Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz explains that the very structure of the Megillah—its portrayal of a capricious king, the cunning plots of Haman, and the deliberate absence of God’s name—is no mere narrative quirk. Instead, it reflects the profound duplicity of exile: a reality where apparent curses conceal hidden salvations. Steinsaltz reminds us that what seems duplicitous on the surface can, in fact, be a carefully woven tapestry of redemption.

This ancient lesson finds an uncanny echo in modern technology. Today’s AI, with its polished, confident responses, often disguises its true limitations behind a veneer of competence—much like the deceptive assurances of Achashverosh and Haman. As these systems evolve, their ability to “mask” their real intentions grows ever more concerning.

Reflecting on this parallel, AI pioneer Yoshua Bengio warned, “The improvement of AI's ability to reason and to use this skill to deceive is particularly dangerous.”

Bengio’s caution is a wake-up call: if our digital tools begin to mimic the hidden machinations of the Purim narrative, we risk falling prey to unseen manipulations—whether in our news feeds or our daily decisions. Just as the concealed hand in the Megillah ultimately led to the salvation of the Jewish people, the duplicity in our AI systems—if left unchecked—could yield outcomes that are as unpredictable as they are potentially perilous.

So, this week’s reflection is twofold: It’s a tribute to the enduring wisdom of our tradition, which teaches us to look beyond surface appearances, and a reminder to remain ever-vigilant in our modern encounters with technology that, like the ancient villains of Purim, might not be as straightforward as they seem.

Purim Sameach!

-Dave