Although Artificial Intelligence seems very contemporary and only possible nowadays with the advancements in recent technology, humans have been venturing and questioning the creation of an artificial being since antiquity. This can be seen in the Jewish folklore legends of the Golem, and similarly in the story of the creation of Adam in the book of Genesis.

Adam, the first man created by God was initially an artificial being, created from mud and clay, only becoming human when he was given a soul by God. Similarly, in Jewish folklore tradition, Rabbis were able to create a similar artificial being from kneading mud, dust, and clay void of human soul, through mysticism and magical means. These creatures were called Golems. The legend of the Golem is one of the most famous post-biblical Jewish legends.

These anthropogenic beings were created to connect to the divine, through rituals in which precise letter combination in Hebrew were recited – in a manner that is highly reminiscent of coding, much as artificial computer code creates AI.

One can clearly see how these biblical stories of creation influence the idea of the artificial humanoid in science fiction (Ambrus, 2019) and contemporary life.

Many scholars believe that we are living in the age of the Golem (Sherwin, 2007)

Today’s Golems are not made of dust and clay but come in many forms. From stem cells to genetically engineered fruits and vegetables, to the first cloned sheep to a Pokémon, and finally coalescing in the modern-day image of robots and AI beings, the Golem populates every aspect of contemporary human life.

Since the beginning of the 20th century, the Golem has been subject to novels, theatre, artworks, animation, films, ballets and other works of art. The word robot itself comes from the Czech word for “forced work”, literally meaning “artificial (forced labour) worker” and was introduced in the 1920 play by K. Čapek’s R.U.R. ‘Rossum’s Universal Robots’.

The artificially created human has long been used as a metaphor for artificial intelligence by scientists, philosophers, writers, and artists. The motivations and methods for it’s creation and its actions, once it has been brought to life, have provided powerful analogies for the potential risks and benefits of creating artificial intelligence. This can be seen clearly in one of the most famous novels of all time, Frankenstein.

Considered as the ancestor of science fiction (Ambrus, 2019)Mary Shelly’s 1818 Frankenstein novel evolves around the theme of a moral relation between scientist creator and humanoid creature in accord with a norm that first took shape in the biblical account of God’s creation of the first human being.

In a quest for his own glory, a scientist bestows life on an artificial humanoid creature who becomes an autonomous and uncontrollable force and ends up devastating his maker by taking the lives of those he loves just because he refused to make him a female companion.

It would be difficult to contrive another basic plot as amenable to insight into both human creativity and its moral implications as this one. After all, this is the greatest fear of all, that of the artificial beings rebelling against their creators.

Many science fiction movies evolve around the same plot such as Terminator, Space Odyssey, The Matrix, Star Trek Discovery and Star Trek Pickard for example. Other movies, such as Prometheus, explore the concept of the relationship between the creator and the creatures that they have created, which may not be benign in nature, especially if the creator has an issue with their creations or vice-versa. Fewer movies have examined the implications from the AI point of view, such as the Bicentennial Man, A.I., Chappie, Extinction and Automata.

Each of the many manifestations of the Golem – in literature, theatre, film, visual art, or popular culture – has reflected the concerns of their creators and the anxieties of the times in which they lived, whether the increased brutality of technological warfare, politics, the threat of nuclear weapons, global warming, environmental catastrophe, or scientific advances in biotechnology, AI, and big data.

With recent developments in bioengineering, reproductive biotechnology, computer science, bionics, robotics, artificial intelligence, artificial life and related fields, the golem legend is being increasingly understood as a relevant and powerful metaphor for understanding and addressing the nature and ethical and public policy implications of such developments. (Sherwin, 2007)

The creation of novelty and things beyond our reach is second to our nature. We undoubtedly all want our own private Golem, that would enable us to reach heights that our humanity wouldn’t allow us. Golems that help us enhance and further our creativity and ability to create new things that we can for now just imagine.