Unity of the heart in the face of humanoids: artificial intelligence and spiritual resonance
Contents
A talk by Dr Michel Taoutchan, researcher in Sufism and practitioner of the path, taken from episode 329 of the series Layali al-Wissal (‘The Nights of Union’), broadcast on 18 October 2026 on the channel of the Al Moultaqa Foundation. Delivered at the World Meeting of Sufism. Given in French; the extract opens on the title of the talk, ‘Living Humanoids’.
Extract of 13 min 11 s (01:09:54 to 01:23:05). Original full video: Layali al-Wissal, episode 329, Al Moultaqa Foundation channel.
Dr Michel Taoutchan is no commentator on artificial intelligence: he is a researcher in Sufism who coordinates research teams on humanoids, emotional dynamics and the peace of nations. His talk, delivered at the World Meeting of Sufism and then taken up in the Layali al-Wissal 329 vigil, starts from a simple question: faced with machines that imitate man to 99%, what remains of the 1% that makes the human being?
Three teams, one question
The speaker first sets out the landscape of his research. A team at Tsinghua University, Asia’s leading university, works on the discovery of artificial intelligence and the development of humanoids. A second team deals with emotional dynamics, that is, with affect rather than emotions alone: everything we can feel, with techniques aimed at healing trauma while developing the spiritual in daily life. The third is his own: the Circle for Reflection on Nations, which has worked on the peace of nations and peace in the heart of the soul for some fifty years.
And there is a fourth team he has not mentioned, he says, but which is always present in his soul: the path. For seventeen years, he says, he has benefited from the teachings of the masters of the Tariqa Qadiriya Boutchichiya and, today, from those of Sidi Mounir. It is from this education, he says, that he can ‘say something’ before scholars, the fuqara’ and the faqirat.
Heart resonance and the unity of the heart
The central concept of the talk is heart resonance: what spiritual transformation does in a person once it moves beyond pure intellectual analysis. ‘If it is just vibration, if it is purely intellectual analysis, we shall not have it,’ he warns. From this resonance, he says, is born the notion he chose for his title: the unity of the heart.
It unfolds on two planes. Horizontal: the centre of relations between brothers and sisters, society itself. Vertical: the relation to God at the summit of the same axis. It is on this unity, he says, that he experienced during the vigil a spiritual transformation he considers of the utmost importance.
The 1% the machine cannot reach
The technical argument is clear. Enormous sums have been spent to build an artificial intelligence capable of imitating man to 99%. But there remains that 1% which is the human being himself, and to develop that 1% would require spending far more than everything devoted to the preceding 99%. The speaker cites the figures: China filed 5.3 million patents in 2025, the United States 600,000, Europe a few hundred thousand. And yet the energy comparison is dizzying: the brain consumes 15 watts, the whole body 80 watts, while creating a humanoid that thinks and acts like man requires about 2.7 billion watts today.
‘The human being still has capacities that can be created,’ he concludes. Humanoids replace tasks, not the work of man: behind the task there is responsibility, the capacity to adapt, to integrate, to love and to push back. One may well ask, he poses, whether we are capable of loving what we have created, when those creations are incapable of loving us. ‘That is the fear of the future.’
Moroccan welcome as heritage
A personal passage runs through the talk: Moroccan welcome and generosity, which the world sometimes takes for mere politeness, are for him a deep heritage, transmitted by tradition and teaching, ‘deep in the hearts of Moroccans’. It is from this heritage, he suggests, that the heart resonance of which machines are incapable can be born.
The power of 3
The conclusion comes down to a single formula. Artificial intelligence, joined to affective intelligence (what touches the human being, his emotions), produces an intelligence ‘raised to the power of 3’. The figure 3 is not a quantity: it is a triangle in which act the Creator, creation and the human being in his spiritual maturity. And the speaker ends on a confidence: for two or three days of the vigil he already feels ‘far more intelligent than before, than yesterday and the day before’.
This way of posing the AI question is not one opinion among others: it is nourished by seventeen years of wayfaring in the Tariqa Qadiriya Boutchichiya, the path of Sidi Mounir al-Qadiri Boutchich. To hear the path’s own spiritual answer, Sidi Mounir’s teaching on ‘Honour and Constancy’ shows how the heart is strengthened; a dhikr session is its practice; the frequently asked questions help situate these notions.
Frequently asked questions
What is the unity of the heart (wahdat al-qalb) according to this talk?
The very centre of the heart on two planes: horizontal, that of relations between brothers and sisters and of society, and vertical, that of the relation to God. It is on this unity that the speaker felt his ‘heart resonance’ and the spiritual transformation.
What does the energy comparison between brain, body and AI show?
The brain consumes 15 watts, the whole body 80 watts, whereas the most advanced humanoids require about 2.7 billion watts. The human being does with 80 watts what the machine does with billions: the gap is not in power but in being.
What is the talk’s closing formula?
Artificial intelligence joined to affective intelligence (what touches the human being, his emotions) produces an intelligence ‘raised to the power of 3’: the figure 3 is not a quantity but a triangle, the creator, creation and the human being in his spiritual maturity.
Why will humanoids not replace man?
They can imitate man to 99%, but the remaining 1% is the human being himself: loving what one has created, bearing responsibility, the capacity to adapt, to integrate, to love and to push back. They replace tasks, not the work of man.
Frequently asked questions
What is the unity of the heart (wahdat al-qalb) according to this talk?
The very centre of the heart on two planes: horizontal, that of relations between brothers and sisters and of society, and vertical, that of the relation to God. It is on this unity that the speaker felt his 'heart resonance' and the spiritual transformation.
What does the energy comparison between brain, body and AI show?
The brain consumes 15 watts, the whole body 80 watts, whereas the most advanced humanoids require about 2.7 billion watts. The human being does with 80 watts what the machine does with billions: the gap is not in power but in being.
What is the talk's closing formula?
Artificial intelligence joined to affective intelligence (what touches the human being, his emotions) produces an intelligence 'raised to the power of 3': the figure 3 is not a quantity but a triangle, the creator, creation and the human being in his spiritual maturity.
Why will humanoids not replace man?
They can imitate man to 99%, but the remaining 1% is the human being himself: loving what one has created, bearing responsibility, the capacity to adapt, to integrate, to love and to push back. They replace tasks, not the work of man.
