"See, I set before you today a blessing and a curse…" (Devarim 11:26)
Is the rise of AI and the rapid advancement of the world a blessing or a curse?
This question occupies many minds, even on a purely material level. There are brilliant thinkers who admit that it has already reached the point of "the creation rising up against its creator."
Rebbe Nachman, in the very first teaching of Likutey Moharan, brings the verse from Koheles: "A man's wisdom makes his face shine." Rashi explains this as referring to Moshe Rabbeinu, whose face radiated light because he merited to grasp the Divine Light itself. Rebbe Nachman teaches that each person can attain this in their own measure. Everything depends on one question: who is in control of whom?
Chazal tell us that until the coming of the Redeemer, "when this one rises, the other falls" - the kingdoms of Yaakov and Eisav cannot coexist in power. Therefore, when we see the strength of the sitra achra gaining such momentum in our times, the only way to overcome it is through the power of the tzaddik - the Moshe of the generation - to strengthen holiness and subdue the forces of impurity.
How do we do this?
The whole power of AI and modern technology is really to display the wisdom of the nations - an external wisdom. In truth, it diminishes a person's emunah in themselves and reduces them to foolishness. There are geniuses with remarkably high IQs and astounding ideas, yet when they face the test of self-knowledge, they are utterly lost. They do not know who they are, and are constantly trying to escape from themselves.
Rebbe Nachman teaches us: You - a simple person - just be aware of yourself and your feelings. Do you have struggles and challenges? That is completely fine! Don't run away. Face them. Go out to the field, cry out to HaShem to send you the guidance that is right for you. Offer Him your willingness to recognize that you are a created being, totally dependent on Him. But above all, know that you are a human being!
The inner essence of who you are is a chelek Eloka mima'al - a spark of the Divine above. Your G-dly mind is in fact the true source from which all such inventions ultimately derive. Yet we must not allow it to be used only as a tool to make people foolish, but rather to deepen our understanding: the more we realize that HaShem is beyond our comprehension, and we humbly accept this, the more we are given the true tools to uncover our own greatness in the world.
If so, even something like AI - when used with the recognition that it too is ultimately a creation of HaShem - can be transformed into a vessel for holiness.
A blessing and a curse - our task is to turn the curse into a chariot for blessing. Shabbat Shalom | 
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