Can I Let My AI Agent Run on Shabbat?

Commenters debated whether an Orthodox Jew may let an AI agent run on Shabbat, with practical, legal, and ethical angles. TZubiri argued the answer depends on the agent’s purpose (e.g., market trading versus study) and on mechanics like whether prompts are issued or outputs are observed, likening some cases to using an oven timer. Others framed analogies: krick compared the question to letting non-Jews work for you on Saturday and raised a broader concern about free will and halakha; gs17 invoked golem legends - one turned off for Sabbath, another causing a fire - to show historical precedents; dsauerbrun joked about needing a shabbos goy. levocardia and prologic offered lighter takes about agent skills and terminology confusion, while klipt pointed out that Sabbath constraints have historically spurred inventions like the crockpot.

Several commenters pushed back on the premise. thesuavefactor and littleweep criticized religious rules as limiting personal freedom or feeling performative, citing objections to prescribed behaviors like headscarves or preprogramming ovens. TZubiri also explored a philosophical risk: laws interpreted and automated by humans can misfire, and attempts to create a “holy-law-following” automaton would inherit interpretation errors. The debate split between technical/legal nuance - whether AI is meaningfully new - and deeper theological or liberty-based objections to enforcing Sabbath norms.