Logo for InspoTarot
If You Like It, Build It
Creating something that only you value can still be educational and satisfying.
2024-02-09T16:35-08:00
Following your passions when everyone else is against you is a true measure of determination, either that or downright stubbornness. After Reddit scoffed at my first attempt to combine tarot cards and artificial intelligence, I adapted my idea into a new app called InspoTarot.
As I mentioned in my last post, I had a disastrous experience trying to market artificial intelligence to Reddit’s tarot community. The feedback was nearly unanimous: AI has no place in the realm of tarot readings. They told me this new technology was either too much of a threat to living, breathing professionals or else too cold, impersonal and fundamentally incapable of doing a good job.
I admit this might be true for those tarot readings that seek deep spiritual insight into the nature of one’s problems or something as intangible as a person’s future, but fortune telling with the cards has never really been my thing. I am a pretty pragmatic and secular card reader who sees the deck as more an avenue for psychoanalysis than for winning the lottery. So in a last-ditch effort to imbue the deck with the power of AI, I created another web app more focused on science than on clairvoyance.
One of the books I read last year was a collection of essays on the shadow self, a concept popularized by the psychologist Carl Jung. This is the side of our mind that is unconsciously repressed. Another source even told me Jung expressed curiosity in the potential of tarot to tap into the archetypes of the unconscious psyche. Inspired by this idea, my new app asks a user to pick five cards where each has at least one word relating to the person’s current condition. After the selection, the app analyzes the spread's chosen words while also pointing out the unchosen words for each card.
These “shadow” words, I thought, could give insight into a person’s shadow self. The idea here is that each card is a semantic unit in itself, so if at least one associated word has conscious relevance, maybe the words not picked have unconscious meanings as well.
Sadly, this new format wasn’t popular either. Adding shadow work into the mix didn’t change people’s view that artificial intelligence is too impersonal for any kind of card reading, even one based in the science of psychology. I now admit defeat and won’t be pushing tarot-meets-AI anymore, but I’m glad I tried.
Pursuing one’s passions is always rewarding, even if it results in failure. In creating InspoTarot I learned more about psychology and the delightfully complex process of streaming API responses from OpenAI. And just like with Delfai Oracle, I’m proud of what I created and am happy to post it here in my portfolio.