AISH’s AI Rabbi Now Answers All Your Jewish Questions
Rabbi AI is not the first time that AISH has delved into groundbreaking new areas. There's truly no limit to their creativity and brilliance when it comes to international Jewish education. We can't wait to see what they come up with next.
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AISH, a leading Jewish education organization, has launched "Rabbi AI," an artificial intelligence platform designed to provide personalized Jewish guidance to users worldwide. Accessible at ai.aish.com, the service aims to meet the growing demand for answers on Judaism and Jewish practice, scaling AISH’s outreach beyond the capacity of its current programs.
Noah Levin, AISH’s Chief Product & Marketing Officer, explained that the initiative addresses the limitations of their existing online chat system, staffed by three rabbis across different time zones who respond to global inquiries 24/6. “People come to aish.com seeking a sense of belonging, purpose, personal guidance, or knowledge about Judaism,” Levin said. “The challenge is that demand far exceeds our supply.”
Three months ago, AISH developed a specialized language model by integrating its extensive online curriculum, knowledge base, and transcribed offline content, including lectures and books. “We tested Rabbi AI internally with our global staff, rabbis, and students, refining it to reflect AISH’s pedagogical and philosophical core,” Levin noted. Initial feedback praised the platform’s accurate and authentic responses.
The AI supports multilingual queries, understanding questions in nearly any language while primarily responding in English, with Spanish responses available and plans for further language expansion. Rabbi Steven Burg, AISH’s CEO, emphasized its role in the organization’s mission: “Rabbi AI allows us to deliver Jewish wisdom, education, and guidance at scale to tens of thousands seeking answers worldwide, meeting them with authentic teachings.”
Rabbi Nechemiah Coopersmith, Chief Editor of AISH.com for 25 years and a 40-year veteran of the organization, serves as the project’s face. “This platform distills decades of Jewish wisdom from AISH,” he said. “I was initially skeptical about AI’s ability to deliver quality responses, but Rabbi AI’s answers are accurate, authentic, relatable, and sensitive. It’s breathtaking.”
Human oversight remains integral. The AI flags conversations requiring rabbinical intervention—such as user requests for human guidance or queries beyond its scope—while maintaining user anonymity. “Our backend system ensures privacy unless a user requests a live rabbi, who can then view the conversation context,” Levin explained. “With thousands of chats, no human can review them all, and access is restricted unless explicitly requested.”
Testing showed Rabbi AI significantly boosts capacity. Previously, human rabbis handled four in-depth conversations at a time, reaching about 100 people daily. In a limited test, the platform managed over 5,000 conversations in a short period. AISH aims to expand Rabbi AI across its website, courses, podcasts, and social media, with a mobile app in development. The service is free and accessible via web browser at ai.aish.com.