A New Tower of Babel?
Exhibit AKey Evidence
- On July 11, 2026, Dean W. Ball (@deanwball), OpenAI’s head of strategic futures, posted on X: “there comes a time in every ai policy professional’s life when they realize they have to read the talmud to make further progress, and for me that time was this week.”
- Coverage and commentary read the post as interest in the Talmud’s tradition of legal reasoning as a model for AI policy and alignment. It is a personal post, not an OpenAI policy. It does not mention Kabbalah, golems, or mysticism.
- The host’s argument (not Ball’s): Wretched Watchmen ties the remark to the golem legend from Jewish folklore and Kabbalah, in which clay figures are “brought to life or given intelligence when language is spoken to them.”
- The host’s argument: “Golems require an inscription of language upon the forehead or within the mouth, while artificial intelligence is simply constructed from large language models, essentially giving life through language.”
- The host’s argument: citing Rabbi Tzvi Freeman’s Chabad.org article “Is AI the New Tower of Babel?”, he argues that AI is “trying to become gods exactly as Nimrod and the people of Babylon back then were trying to do.”
- For fairness: Freeman’s article is a cautionary piece. It warns that technology pursued without higher purpose enslaves its makers, and it also suggests that AI could help repair what Babel broke. It is not an endorsement of building a new Babel.
- The link between Ball’s post and the golem legend is the host’s interpretation, not something Ball said.
- The biblical lens: when humanity unites around its own power and its own words, it turns into idolatry: making a god out of what our hands and our language have built.
Exhibit BFrom the Word
“And the LORD said, ‘Indeed the people are one and they all have one language, and this is what they begin to do; now nothing that they propose to do will be withheld from them.’”
“Beware lest anyone cheat you through philosophy and empty deceit, according to the tradition of men, according to the basic principles of the world, and not according to Christ.”
Source: Zak Spiro · Wretched Watchmen on YouTube
Prophecy Misfits with Wretched Watchmen. Segment runs about 1:47:00–1:56:45. Watch the full episode at the source.
ClassifiedFull Briefing
A New Tower of Babel? OpenAI, the Talmud, and the Golem
Source: Prophecy Misfits with Wretched Watchmen. Segment runs about 1:47:00–1:56:45.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oHzSkKX5rz4
What was said
On July 11, 2026, Dean W. Ball (@deanwball), OpenAI's head of strategic futures, posted on X:
"there comes a time in every ai policy professional's life when they realize they have to read the talmud to make further progress, and for me that time was this week."
Coverage and commentary read the post as interest in the Talmud's tradition of legal reasoning (halakhic argument, case-based interpretation) as a model for AI policy and alignment. It is a personal post, not an OpenAI policy. It does not mention Kabbalah, golems, or mysticism.
Report: https://www.c14news.com/article/1477897
The host's argument
Wretched Watchmen ties the remark to the golem legend from Jewish folklore and Kabbalah, in which clay figures are "brought to life or given intelligence when language is spoken to them." He compares this to AI built on large language models: "Golems require an inscription of language upon the forehead or within the mouth, while artificial intelligence is simply constructed from large language models, essentially giving life through language."
He then turns to Babel. He cites a Chabad.org article by Rabbi Tzvi Freeman, "Is AI the New Tower of Babel?", and argues that AI is "trying to become gods exactly as Nimrod and the people of Babylon back then were trying to do."
https://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/6628877/jewish/Is-AI-the-New-Tower-of-Babel.htm
For fairness: Freeman's article is a cautionary piece by a rabbi. It warns that technology pursued without higher purpose enslaves its makers, and it also suggests that AI could help repair what Babel broke. It is not an endorsement of building a new Babel. The link between Ball's post and the golem legend is the host's interpretation, not something Ball said.
The biblical lens
The critique here is spiritual and theological. When humanity unites around its own power and its own words, it turns into idolatry: making a god out of what our hands and our language have built.
"And the LORD said, 'Indeed the people are one and they all have one language, and this is what they begin to do; now nothing that they propose to do will be withheld from them.'" Genesis 11:6 (NKJV)
"Beware lest anyone cheat you through philosophy and empty deceit, according to the tradition of men, according to the basic principles of the world, and not according to Christ." Colossians 2:8 (NKJV)