Priestess of Delphi by John Collier (1891)
Where Artificial Intelligence Doesn’t Belong
AI, in some situations, can go both too far and not far enough.
2024-02-09T11:15-08:00
Artificial intelligence is fast becoming an ubiquitous part of the modern world, but attitudes towards this new technology remain divisive. I encountered this while promoting my new web app, Delfai Oracle.
This app I created allows users to enter custom spreads or pick a number of random cards. It then reads these cards with the power of AI, composing a summary about the essence of the reading. When I promoted the beta version to different communities on Reddit, the response I received was vitriolic. No one saw the time-saving value of of my creation, either as a supplemental tool for professionals or as an instructional one for those curious about what light the cards could shed on their lives. Virtually every tarot fan saw my creation as either an existential threat to the human element of their passion or else something innately incapable of ever reading the cards. To this latter group, Delfai Oracle completely lacked the human empathy that so many clients seek, and that so many professionals wish to give.
Perhaps it was my fault for thinking that something as personally intimate as a tarot card reading could translate to the world of artificial intelligence. To my credit, however, I saw the possibility of summarizing the myriad meanings of the deck in a matter of seconds as a blessing, not a curse, to the tarot community. It's often difficult (at least for me) to find common ground among contradicting cards in a spread. One reads success, another failure. Love and heartbreak, health and sickness – sometimes the overall message is so up, down, and all around that it's impossible to find a common theme.
AI's appeal lies in its ability to quickly find connections. Entire novels can be read and summarized in a matter of minutes, pointing out subtle nuances that may be lost on a pair of human eyes. I thought both tarot readers and clients would praise someone who brought this power to their field, but I was severely mistaken.
Despite the blowback, I don’t regret building this project. It stands here as yet another portfolio piece that demonstrates how I can implement an artificial intelligence API into a website, streaming each response word by word from OpenAI’s server. I even decided to make another iteration with my next web app, InspoTarot, using similar techniques.