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Houston, we have a problem.

Last week, there was a watershed moment in Artificial Intelligence. A new program, called ChatGPT, or GPT-3 was released, free to the public, and is available on every phone, tablet and laptop. And it is a big deal. A game changer.

ChatGPT is capable of understanding plain English prompts and writing back in perfect English just seconds later. For example, I asked it to compare the themes of Hamlet and The Great Gatsby in a four-paragraph essay. Done. I asked it to compare and contrast the lives of Rashi and Rambam. Done. I asked it to write a scathing 100-word critique of Newgrass music. Done. I asked it to write a short story about a bird that falls in love with a whale. Done. I asked it to write a study guide for geometry. Done.

It can create menus and then shopping lists. It speaks every language. It can code and write programs for you based on your explanations in plain English. It can write proposals. It can make up its own jokes. It is shockingly and surprisingly powerful, and it is getting better every day. Artificial Intelligence is here, right now, and it is not going away- and it presents challenges to every facet of our economy and education.

Here are my initial takeaways:

1. We as a school need to be very proactive in embracing the future. While for many of us, the thought of such technology is frightening and makes us feel like Luddites- our job is to prepare students for their future, not our past. We, as a community of educators, will start to learn, play, imagine, and dream about AI and what this means for our kids. We will be at the forefront of dealing with these challenges.
2. As AI begins to take over more and more of the intellectual challenges of being human, what separates us from being animals or machines will become harder to define. Now, more than ever, being part of a Jewish Day School is critical to our long-term health and well-being. Community, connection, ritual, and a feeling of connection to history and communal destiny will become more, not less important in the future.
3. Project Based Learning is more important than ever. PBL helps students make learning into action. It asks them to take on real-world challenges, and build knowledge and skills that are beyond the knowledge and capabilities of AI. It pushes students to work together, building skills of leadership, management, delegation, and planning. We have been, and will continue to build our capacity in high-quality, interdisciplinary PBL over the next several years to ensure that what we ask of our students remains relevant, important, and ‘un-hackable.’

I am reminded of a joke, that God once got fed up with the world and warned all the people that s/he was going to flood the world again in a week's time. People of all faiths retreated to their people, fasting, mourning, and praying. The Jewish people got together and said, “Alright people, we have one week to learn how to breathe underwater!” We have faced more than our share of watershed moments and dealt with the ground shifting under our feet. This is one of those moments for us in education. But there is no group of people, and no school more ready to meet these challenges than the Jewish people and the HBHA faculty, staff, and families.