Religious Rules in an AI Assisted Household

One of the key differences between embodied intelligence which lives in a lab and embodied intelligence which lives in a home is that a home has a range of different forces at play that might not exist in a lab. This includes influences like family dynamics, household pets, gender expectations and religious customs. To experience and experiment with all of these, I am preparing myself and my household in advance of the arrival of my robot. This includes creating a set of proposed ideas surrounding how my robot will integrate into my home as a young Jewish woman.  

As indicated by the name that I chose for my robot, Tova, the Hebrew word for good, my faith is an important part of my life and how I see the world. As a rather modern and assimilated Jew, I eat Kosher style but do not keep a fully halachically kosher kitchen or abstain strictly from all technology for the sabbath but I do celebrate Shabbat with a traditional candle lighting ceremony, a blessing over Kosher wine and sharing challah with friends.  I get my wine across the Danube in a small Kosher market on Taborstrasse and bring it back to my house for my Friday night tradition. As Kosher law requires, this wine is handled exclusively by observant Jews from harvesting to serving without question… Until now.  One of the features advertised by home robotics is their ability to host and serve and I’m eager to bring forth a discussion for the update to Kosher laws for the age of robotics.  Although the laws surrounding Kosher wine may be the only ones that I am technically forced to clarify for my own experiment, I found myself diving into a myriad of rules and regulations surrounding the use of technology on the Sabbath which brought me face to face with a much larger question.  

Is the robot considered a person?

The concept of AI personhood has been debated on a theoretical level amongst scientists and sci-fi writers alike for decades. But now I have a very concrete decision to make. And of all places and times in this vast and complicated universe, for me, it will happen in my living room on my robot’s first Friday evening.

Let’s have a brief introduction to some of the rules that exist in Judaism. Although we are in the Jewish year 5785, we have rules about technology and electricity.  How does that happen, you might ask? They are interpretations of the Torah, including prohibitions on kindling fire on the Sabbath (Exodus 35:3) which has been interpreted to include creating new forms of energy, which is why turning on lights, computers, or other devices that create an electrical circuit is typically forbidden. There’s also 39 categories of forbidden activities or melachot, that involve creative work, such as cooking, building, or writing. Operating electronic devices can be seen as a form of "building" a circuit or completing a task that might mimic one of these traditional categories, so observant Jews avoid turning devices on or off.  For instance, one of the melachot is writing, using devices that record information—such as texting, typing, or sending emails—is also avoided. This is especially relevant for computers, phones, and even certain smart home devices.

Now there are many workarounds to allow for modern observant Jews to still operate within the world while trying to observe shabbat. Some of them you may have witnessed or you may even have in your own home!  Have you ever seen an elevator stop on every floor? That is called a shabbos elevator and can help elderly people get up and down buildings without breaking a directive to not create an electrical circuit by summoning the elevator and pressing their floor. Perhaps you have a slow cooker on your kitchen counter right now.  That is also a workaround for shabbos whereby food can be prepared prior to the day or rest but cook and stay warm throughout Shabbat. You may have also heard of neighbors who aren’t practicing Jews coming to help perform simple tasks like turning on or off the lights, raising or lowering the thermostat or turning off the stove.  My curiosity lies here in wondering if the robot would be seen as a member of the household, a humanoid non-Jew or a piece of machinery.

As with most of the issues I’m raising, much of this has to do with the mode of operation.  If the mode is remote, then it would count as machinery.  If the mode is teleoperated, it would likely count as machinery.  But if the robot is in fully autonomous mode, is it not a person? We know it is not human. But is it not a person?  It lives with us and perhaps does not practice any religion but could we let it know that we are feeling a bit cold and let it raise the thermostat? Could we have it on a timer to flick on the lights at sunset? How does interacting with this non-human person living in our home with us differ from using timers in outlets, refrigerators and ovens with shabbos mode or smart home systems designed to control lights and temperature prior to shabbat?

This raises the conundrum that perhaps with certain settings, we can be halachically allowed assistance by the robot but then we are classifying it as a non-human person and a non-Jew, if that understanding stands, then it serves to reason that it couldn’t serve the Kosher wine on it’s own while maintaining Kosher laws. I argue that it can help with one or the other, but not both.  And our assessment of which it can help with, will provide a preliminary answer to the question of its personhood.

With all of these questions swirling about modes of operation, settings, classifications and more, I decided to reach out to an incredibly intelligent and forward thinking Rabbi to get his perspective.  I’ll update here as more opinions and perspectives come in!