AUTHOR’S NOTE: I can’t quite fathom why anyone would think that the intrusion of AI (artificial intelligence) technology into the art of divination is desirable. Regarding the entire phenomenon, we might well substitute “AI” for “America” in the old Funkadelic album title “America Eats Its Young.”

I’m disturbed (although I can’t say shocked) by the emergence of AI search engines as a primary source of interpretive content for tarot readings, largely replacing dedicated tarot apps. It’s apparent that most people who resort to asking a computer for insights that are more properly obtained via introspection are neophytes who are looking for the fastest way to begin sorting out card meanings and don’t want to embrace the arduous toil of study and practice.

In a recent online conversation, one contributor observed “There is no place for AI in tarot. It has no soul and no intuition and should never be used for readings.” I could not agree more. Its output is inevitably a pastiche of bits-and-pieces culled from electronically-published material (without the authors’ permission) that is logistically assembled and then cleverly groomed into slick text that is often hard to distinguish from original writing.

What it lacks is a feel for the nuances that are a large part of capturing the import of tarot cards in combination. There is none of the impressionistic extemporizing (aka “free-association” from the images) that marks a genuinely creative approach to interpretation, no trace of the inspiration, imagination and ingenuity that can turn “canned” definitions into vivid storytelling. In short, there is none of the magic and mysticism that makes a reading truly memorable. If there seems to be a ghost of humanity in it, we may just be seeing what we want to see based on our expectations. After all, even Victor Frankenstein’s monster retained the outward appearance of its miscellaneous parts although it had – to steal from Mel Brooks – an “Abby Normal” brain.

I find it impossible to believe that AI could ever come up with the compelling narrative tropes (in the form of metaphor and analogy) that derive from shared cultural and social experience. All it can deliver is what it feeds itself from cannibalized information. It may process language skillfully but it can’t experience an emotional reaction to images the way human compassion can. I can’t think of anything more sterile than introducing algorithms into what should be a triumphant merger of experience-based and intuitive wisdom.

When asked if I’ve explored AI’s potential for enhancing my divinatory practice, my answer is not just “No” but “Hell, no, I have no reason to bother with it since it could never duplicate what I do.” That’s not hubris talking, it’s recognition of AI’s inherent shortcomings that make it incapable of matching a sympathetic reader’s ability to speak to a client’s subconscious awareness of his or her private reality via the cards. It takes more than knowledge that is stripped down and then glued back together to create an effective reading, it demands discernment and sensitivity in making the most of the potential for client enlightenment, and that is precisely what computer programs can’t faithfully reproduce, only mimic.