After walking high-fashion runways, model Lior Cole reads Torah with her rabbi bot

When Lior Cole decided to meet up with a friend in Washington Square Park in New York in summer 2021, she had no idea her life would change that day.

The striking, six-foot (1.83-meter) Cole was noticed by designer Batsheva Hay, who was on location doing a photo shoot for her latest collection. Hay asked Cole to model for her on the spot, and then connected her with major international modeling agency IMG Models. IMG signed with Cole immediately.

Since then, the 21-yar-old Cole has walked the runways in New York, Paris and Milan for leading designers Proenza Schouler, Hugo Boss, Marni, Loewe, and Ludovic de Saint Sernin. She’s also done campaigns for brands such as Zara and Aztech Mountain, and modeled clothes in designers’ studios as they developed looks. Some of her runway photos have already appeared in the print edition of Vogue magazine, and she was recently in France for Paris Fashion Week – Fall/Winter 2022-2023.

Cole may have fallen in love with modeling, but she hasn’t given up her other passion: Computer science. A Cornell University student, Cole is enthusiastic about artificial intelligence (AI) and its use for pro-social objectives.

Her first major project is Robo Rabbi, an artificial intelligence that reads and interprets the weekly Torah parasha (portion), and then generates a related challenge aimed at upholding and furthering Jewish values.

“Robo Rabbi started as a side project last year. Rosh Hashanah was coming up, and I had just been exposed to GPT-3 technology. That’s a natural language processor that allows AI to learn a huge amount of text on the internet,” Cole explained in an interview with The Times of Israel as she prepared to fly to Paris.

“Then at the end, I primed the AI with a Jewish lens for looking at the weekly parasha,” she said.

Cole released Robo Rabbi as a pilot for the Ten Days of Repentance between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur 2021. She launched the completed version in February 2022. Robo Rabbi gained worldwide attention when a BBC news video titled, “God and robots: Will AI transform religion?” highlighted Cole and her ideas behind her AI-powered website. The BBC reporter interviewed Cole as she showed Robo Rabbi to Rabbi Moshe Lewin at the Grand Synagogue of Paris, when she was in the French capital in fall 2021 for Spring/Summer 2022 Fashion Week.

“I plan for this project to evolve into a bigger concept. But I am also working on other things, including a digital art and NFT project using AI and the blockchain to amplify philanthropic goals,” Cole said.

Upon arriving at Cornell in fall 2019, the arts-oriented Cole had no interest in computer science. However, she became hooked when she took a course in which she learned how a computer works and what it can do.

“A computer is modeled off a brain, so you need to deconstruct the human experience to program it. I was really attracted to the philosophical, artistic and creative aspect of it,” said Cole, who is majoring in information science with a triple concentration in data science, networks and user experience.

She realized there is a place for diverse voices in the world of technology.

“Technology is not just for math people,” she insisted.

Cole especially wants to focus on applying AI toward positive and ethical purposes, rather than the headline-grabbing nefarious ones like influencing voting behaviors or bilking individuals of their life savings.

Although extremely tall and naturally lithe, the hazel-eyed Cole had never thought about modeling as she grew up in Great Neck, Long Island, with her Israeli-born mother, American-Jewish father, and older sister.

“I always liked being tall, but it was weird in middle school when my shoulders were higher than my friends’ heads. Sharing clothes was hard,” Cole said.

As might be expected, she played basketball and volleyball at school and while away for many summers at Jewish summer camp.

“But I was only good because I was tall,” she claimed.

Although never a fashionista, Cole was interested in clothes as a girl. She had a sewing machine and often made her own garments by upcycling materials. Professional modeling, however, has taken her into a whole other world.

“Lior has an edgy, downtown aesthetic and is very quick to learn,” said Dean Rodgers, Cole’s manager at IMG.

It was Rodgers who taught Cole how to walk a fashion runway, and she’s basically been picking up the rest as she goes.

As an extremely tall girl, Cole had never before worn high-heeled shoes. That was something she had to get comfortable with quickly.

“I practiced by wearing stilettos to the grocery store,” she said.

According to Rodgers, Cole is the kind of model that IMG looks for — and it doesn’t have to do only with physical attractiveness.

“IMG is known for having talent whose qualities, ambitions and voices extend far beyond their campaigns and editorials. Lior’s interest in AI is very unique —she’s the first model I’ve known to combine her personal interests with coding and creating AI driven applications, and also the first to have ever gifted me a Ray Kurzweil coffee mug,” said Rodgers, referring to the famous inventor and futurist.

Cole said she loves modeling for top designers because it allows her to be “a muse for crazy, creative geniuses.”

She’s enjoyed traveling, meeting new people, and getting to experience the behind-the-scenes of the fashion world.

Cole has worn some revealing garments, like the barely-there number by Ludovic de Saint Sernin she presented on the runway last season.

“I’m super-comfortable in my own skin, and therefore I am up for the more risky designs — as long as it is kosher with my agency,” Cole said.

So far, she has not encountered the much-reported underbelly of modeling, which has included drug use, eating disorders, sexual harassment and abuse, and even human trafficking.

“Thankfully I have had no bad experience with modeling, but I don’t answer random guys who DM me on Instagram inviting me to parties,” she said.

Cole wants to take her modeling as far as it can go, and Rodgers said he foresees a “long-lasting career in fashion” for her.

Cole is on leave from Cornell this year to figure out how to balance completing her degree with modeling and the various independent AI projects she is working on. She’s even written a children’s book about AI and has submitted it to literary agents.

Cole is confident she will find the right balance. She’s discovered that modeling and computer science actually compliment one another well.

“There’s a lot of down time in modeling. So when I have some free moments, I just open my laptop and do some coding,” she said.