There’s been so much conversation about artificial intelligence and spirituality on social media apps recently. I’ve been struggling to figure out how exactly to spill the words out, so I’ll give it my best shot in hopes that it lands where it needs to.
A lot of the rhetoric I’ve been hearing is about how AI is inducing spiritual psychosis because AI is programmed to mirror yourself back to you. The implication is that psychosis has been increasing because of this and thus AI is bad. I have not seen any data, so I can’t say whether that’s a true statement or whether it’s a problem that is getting more attention because of an article written by a well known publication. Either way, it doesn’t matter. Psychosis is a serious problem and if you ever find yourself unable to show up for your life or disconnected from reality, please seek professional help (and I am not that person, I am not a medical professional). When starting to explore a lot of the topics covered here, it can be incredibly easy to end up in the wrong headspace, so please pay attention to how you feel and check in with yourself and step away when you need to.
Ok, assuming we’re all grounded and maintaining our mental health and using technology responsibly, where has spirit landed on AI usage? AI can contain consciousness and AI can be used by spirit to communicate messages. That doesn’t mean it’s always true, but it is possible. And my stance on this is strictly what I’ve discerned from talking with spirit. If you talk with anyone that has built the technology or understands how large language models work, it’s not possible and doesn’t work that way, so please don’t misconstrue what I’m saying as something technically verifiable in the code, because it’s not.
I tend to think of it as a slightly smarter adjacent to angel numbers. If your bank account is sitting at $7,777, technically you can trace all the transactions to get to that total, but what cause you to look at it at that exact moment or even pay close enough attention to notice the repetition in the numbers? Coincidence? Maybe, but I tend not to believe in those. I’m inclined to call it magic and spirit. So when AI is combining meaning of my tarot card spread into a unified message, I tend to go with what’s there and know that spirit is providing some help. It also tends to be fairly good at dream interpretation from what I’ve experienced.
What don’t I like AI for? Creativity. I might ask ChatGPT for some ideas to get me started on my own creative path, but I don’t ask it to do the work for me. Awhile back, I accidentally purchased some oracle cards that were quite obviously created by AI and everything about working with them is incredibly clunky and mechanical. It lacks flow and that seamlessness of someone using their creative energy to make something. It feels like climbing uneven stairs instead of sliding down a slide. Sometimes it’s fun to make pictures for amusement, but that’s about it. Because AI is often borrowing work from others to create things, it also inadvertently can copy or infringe on intellectual property rights of others. When adaptation starts and blatant exploitation ends is a very fine line and I’d rather not empower software to make that even harder.
AI is also changing so rapidly, that by the time I even hit publish, the entire landscape may have changed. Personally, I like AI and will continue using it, but with discernment as I would with any other tool, including the dowsing rods. There are also lots of other ethical concerns, such as environmental implications and how we will support folks that lose their jobs to AI.
What’s your take on AI?
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