“These technologies are morally agnostic. They could be the best things ever and the worst things ever, and the determinant is us.” — Jamie Metzl

Two summers ago, Jamie Metzl gave a talk on AI and spirituality at the Chautauqua Institution in Upstate New York — that same spot where Salman Rushdie was stabbed on stage a couple of years earlier. Rather than an assassination attempt, Metzl’s talk triggered The AI Ten Commandments: A New Moral Code for Humanity — a book co-authored with GPT-5. Metzl humbly claims that AI enabled him to incorporate other non-Christian traditions in a new moral code for humanity.

Some might think, however, that this type of ChatGPT-5 co-production reflects a new moral crisis for humanity. The victory of AI slop. Fast information. High on intellectual calories, low on everything else. Moses received “thou shalt not kill” on Sinai and came down and murdered 3,000 people. The authors of those commandments had no idea about the Americas, Asia, or Africa. Metzl’s ten try to correct for all of that. His eleventh commandment: world-changing technologies must be governed responsibly. Leaving it to the CEOs — even the good ones — is a terrible strategy. These are civilizational transformations. The determinant is us.

Five Takeaways

• Co-Authoring with GPT-5. Five to six thousand back-and-forth exchanges. Not fraud — Metzl is a novelist who cares about language. The Refik Anadol analogy: using the MoMA’s entire digital collection not to reproduce images but to create something new. The collaboration gains a vantage point no individual human could have.

• Moses’s Problem. The biblical 10 commandments examined closely. The first two are preamble. “Thou shalt not kill” — Moses received it and then murdered 3,000 people. Their authors had no awareness of the Americas, Asia, or Africa. Metzl’s project: use AI to look at all human recorded history simultaneously and decipher what all traditions share.

• The Ten Commandments, Listed. Treat every being with compassion. Do no harm. Speak truthfully. Share generously. Seek to understand before judging. Resolve conflict with forgiveness. Live in harmony with nature. Value wisdom over dominance. Honour the freedom of others. Remember the sacredness of life; live with awe, gratitude, and love. Metzl’s favourite is number ten.

• Humanistic Slop vs. Selfish Survivalism. Andrew’s repeated challenge: principles so unobjectionable they mean nothing. Metzl’s counter: the absence of articulated universal norms is itself dangerous. Kant described the League of Peace in 1795. It took two world wars and a hundred and fifty years before the UN Charter was signed. Globalism isn’t idealism. It’s survivalism.

• The Eleventh Commandment. World-changing technologies must be governed responsibly, with national regulation and accountability frameworks. The hope that CEOs will voluntarily do the right thing is a terrible strategy. The nuclear analogy: nobody said “just do whatever you want and good luck.” These technologies are morally agnostic. The determinant is us.

About the Guest

Jamie Metzl is a technology futurist, geopolitics expert, and founder of OneShared.World. He is the author of The AI Ten Commandments: A New Moral Code for Humanity (with GPT-5, April 21, 2026), Superconvergence, and Hacking Darwin.

References

The AI Ten Commandments: A New Moral Code for Humanity by Jamie Metzl and GPT-5 (April 21, 2026)
OneShared.World: oneshared.world

About Keen On America

Nobody asks more awkward questions than the Anglo-American writer and filmmaker Andrew Keen.

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Chapters:

00:00:31 Why GPT-5 and not Claude? The co-author question
00:02:58 Is this a joke? The Chautauqua origin story
00:05:09 The Refik Anadol distinction: collaboration vs. fraud
00:07:57 From the genome to the moral code: why collaborate with AI
00:09:53 Moses’s problem: the biblical 10 commandments examined
00:14:00 Advanced praise from the Vatican and a leading reform rabbi
00:15:15 Humanistic slop: the Andrew challenge
00:17:33 The ten commandments, read aloud
00:19:29 OneShared.World: the global interdependence movement
00:23:40 The politics: globalism, socialism, or survivalism?
00:26:17 What about the localists?
00:28:28 No evidence anyone wants One Shared World. The survivalist case.
00:30:49 What the famous five CEOs should do
00:32:20 Governance, not trust: the accountability argument
00:34:08 The eleventh command