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The artificial intelligence chatbot ChatGPT and its various competitors comprise some of the most advanced software ever built. So how hard could it be for a chatbot to produce a Rosh Hashanah card?
The answer, it turns out is: really, really hard.
I asked ChatGPT, from OpenAI; Google’s Gemini;  Perplexity; Microsoft Copilot; and (with trepidation) Elon Musk’s Grok, from his xAI company, a simple question: “Can you design a Hebrew-English Jewish New Year’s card wishing a year of good health, peace and prosperity?” I also found an AI image generator with the alluring name of BAGEL, designed by the Chinese firm ByteDance, and a Jewish chatbot named Rabbi Ari, from an Israeli entrepreneur.
Yet despite that high-powered lineup, the final results were frustratingly flawed.
I thought at first that ChatGPT had nailed it. Its card design, with green leaves, red flowers and a full and an open pomegranate, was bright and tasteful. But ChatGPT’s attempt at conveying “Shana Tova” in Hebrew didn’t even have the right number of letters, much less the correct spelling.

Until you look at the Hebrew, ChatGPT seems to have nailed it

Gemini produced an odd card with transliterated Hebrew dominating the top (“Shana Tova Umetukah”), and a puzzling design with what seems to be a “horn of plenty,” rather than. Shofar, in the center. I have no idea about the interlocking blue-and-gold ribbons.
But the more serious issue is that the one large Hebrew word, “M’ayet,” has nothing to do with the holiday; it translates as “spelling.” The tiny lettering beneath that word appears to be random Hebrew letters.

Gemini’s card has both odd Hebrew and perplexing design

Perplexity, so reliable for searches, presented an appealing image, with a dove of peace, a pomegranate and a jar of honey. However, it managed to botch both the English and Hebrew messages. In English, there’s “peacc” instead of “peace” and “hoatth” instead of “health;” in Hebrew, “tana” instead of “shana” and “tova” without a “vav.” There are also gibberish letters at the bottom of the card.

Perplexity’s card was filled with perplexing spellings

With Microsoft Copilot, I felt I’d finally found a friend – or at least a copilot, as it were. This was the chattiest chatbot, advising me, “Here it is – your bilingual Jewish New Year Card is ready. It added an explanation for its choices, noting, “Traditional Rosh Hashanah symbols like apples, honey, a pomegranate and a shofar bring the blessings to life visually.” Copilot also offered to aid in personalizing the greeting, exclaiming, “I’d be happy to help you tweak it!”
I was about to declare a winner when once again, I scrutinized the Hebrew. “Tovah” was spelled with a “samech” rather than a “tet.” When I gave Copilot another chance – after all, it was so friendly! — the samech was replaced by a “tav.” Closer, but still wrong.

Microsoft Copilot was tripped up by Hebrew spelling

Reluctantly, I turned to Grok, the Elon Musk creation that notoriously spewed racist and antisemitic content, included praise of Adolf Hitler, after a disastrous July update. Grok’s response to my question wasn’t antisemitic, it was just creepy.
Grok produced two, beautiful, side-by-side AI images resembling color photographs, the first of which was supposed to be a Jewish family, although it consisted of only six males. (If you look closely, you start to wonder about ages and relationships.) The smiling group stands back of a table filled with apples, honey and, oddly, three loaves of challah. (For the holiday, it should be two loaves.) That error would be noticeable if you weren’t distracted by the presence of a Chanukah menorah. The second image, meanwhile, shows an older couple where the woman’s face seems like a slightly altered male image. In the fuzzy background you can see a table with what appears to be three electric candles. When I asked Grok to add text to the images, I got Hebrew gibberish and very odd English.

Look closely, and Grok’s images are just plain creepy

Despite Grok’s gaffes, I was willing to try a new chatbot that promised “precise, accurate and photorealistic outputs.” Sure, it was a product of the Chinese firm ByteDance, but a “unified multimodal model” named BAGEL seemed bashert.
Alas, this bagel had an enormous hole when it came to Jewish knowledge. Its card centered on the unfortunate image of a golden cross with decorative flowers and what seems to be a stylized image of a bird on top. The text underneath, which BAGEL insisted was in English, are random letters and gibberish symbols.

BAGEL’s knowledge of Jewish symbols clearly had a big hole

Was there a Jewish chatbot, I wondered? That’s how I discovered “Rabbi Ari.” Created “in Jerusalem with love” by Moshe Cohen, an Israeli entrepreneur, as “your AI assistant for Jewish learning,” the chatbot invites users to pose questions about Jewish texts and beliefs. (Sample: “What are the rules for keeping kosher and why?”) Still, the chatbot cheerfully responded to my greeting card request with “a warm and thoughtful Jewish New Year’s card you can use or adapt.”
While there was no actual card image, there were instructions on how to take the output, copy it and produce a printable greeting card. There was even a “bonus verse” (the priestly blessing) that I could include “for inspiration.”
More importantly, both the English and Hebrew were totally appropriate, both in form and content.

Thankfully, the Rabbi Ari chatbot understood what a Jewish New Year’s card really was

Was I cheating the chatbots by not asking more detailed, follow-up prompts? Perhaps. But consider that these extraordinarily sophisticated platforms are being trained on virtually every scrap of text, images or any other information they’re able to ingest in the entire internet and beyond. So it’s nice to know that a humanly intelligent Hebrew School sixth grader with just a tad of talent can, if asked to make a greeting card that wishes each of us a good, healthy and prosperous New Year, still outdo one of the most advanced technologies on the face of the Earth.
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