The first thing I asked Banu Guler, founder of the astrology app Co–Star, was whether she could read my chart. Swap phones and check each other’s profiles. After we put the devices aside, she scribbled my astrology chart from her memory in her notebook. It was a circle bisected by different lines, like an irregularly cut pie. It doesn’t look good. There is a 90 degree square between my Sun and Mars. I mean, she lowered her voice and laughed. ”rough” Apparently it is a form that expresses “something sad and temporary.”
Since its launch in 2017, Co-Star has contributed to the resurgence of Western astrology.company Claim There are 30 million registered accounts.third party analysis Data.ai shows that around 800,000 people use the app in a given month. Co–Star provides daily predictions about your life, arbitrary “do’s” and “don’ts” lists that dictate how you should spend your days, and charts that show your compatibility with your friends. Offers. Its language fluctuates between direct and vague, much of it coated in a candy shell of snark.
Earlier this year, the company introduced an “Ask the Stars” chatbot that can best be described as a modern-day Magic 8 Ball. For a small fee, you can enter questions about your life and get answers directly thanks to artificial intelligence. (After you ask a few questions for free, you get five more for $2.99.) When you invoke the feature, the chatbot beckons, “Welcome to the void.” I asked it if it had ever met its soulmate. noHe told me. Are my friends and I estranged? yes, it reacted and gave shape to earlier suspicions. What should I eat for breakfast? oatmeal. With the Moon opposite your natal Neptune, you are experiencing conflict between your emotions and your desire for clarity. Eggs alone are not enough.
Like other artificial intelligence programs, Co–Star makes decisions based on training data.In this case, the app will Claim “All answers are based on Co-Star’s proprietary database of astrological interpretations, specially constructed over five years by poets, astrologers and technicians.” Of course, that’s my personal astrology chart. , that is, it is also informed by my birthday, birth time, and birth place. The answers can be weird, and it’s a far cry from having Banu Guler (or any other human being) read your charts live, but… do Feel personalized. The language is human-like and relies on models created by his OpenAI, the same company that developed ChatGPT. I also cite both my astrological charts and NASA data, giving my answers a unique authority. I can’t lie. It’s persuasive.
This level of personalization is unique and anxiety-provoking.Astrology has long been known as the so-called burnham effect, the tendency for people to believe that general explanations apply specifically to them. (Think of a horoscope published in a newspaper.) Co-Star’s use of generative AI means the app can claim that its advice is more targeted than before. I did. you It could be telling you to find a new therapist or revealing that you have psychic powers. Beth Schinler, a professor of digital religion at the University of Zurich, said the app has a “bigger role than most fortune-tellers.” When I was instructed to take a break with my partner, the singler said to me: [divination leaders] I have never met anyone who could give such a clear answer. ”
According to Guler, Co-Star has embraced AI since the company’s inception. A collection of daily readings From a pre-created text database. (She told me that Co-Star has been collaborating with her OpenAI for several years, but did not elaborate on the nature of that relationship.) Still, the arrival of “Ask the Stars” marks a new It puts the complex ways of progress through a prism. Generative AI has the potential to penetrate people’s mental and moral lives, even through their most mundane decisions. Much has been said about the practical impact of technology, whether it’s changing the way we work or redefining warfare, but in ways that are closer to home and much harder to quantify. It can also affect us.
For many people, the effects should be easily avoidable. After all, this is astrology. Not everyone is into fortune-telling, and even among Western astrology enthusiasts, many do not take it seriously. (For me, it’s a fun way to bond with friends, but Güler’s analysis of my life keeps me up at night.) Some people take it seriously, though. According to a 2018 Pew Research study, more than a quarter of Americans believe that the positions of stars and planets influence people’s lives. Using other astrological systems in specific cultures, guide important decisions in life It’s also far from new. Similarly, AI is being incorporated into various spiritual practices. religious leaders, written sermon Uses ChatGPT. AI avatar led mass into German.
Inviting AI into the more private and personal areas of our lives comes with its own risks. One might think that people wouldn’t trust advice from machines all that much, but as Kathleen Creel, a professor of both religion and computer science at Northeastern University, explained to me, The highly subjective nature of spirituality could make it difficult to spot flaws or mistakes in AI. identify For example, an AI-powered search engine might say that there are no countries in Africa whose names start with this letter. K, its power is immediately questionable. But imagine an AI chatbot trained on your own preferences and habits that tells you that exercising in the morning will set you up for success. If that success doesn’t come, things become even more uncertain. Maybe you need to wait a little longer. Maybe the problem is you.
Whenever people realize that AI is better, faster, and more efficient than humans, “our assumptions about AI’s superiority place it in this god-like realm.” said Singler. Her assumptions, she warned, “invisible all the people in the machine.” AI chatbots conjure clear, unequivocal answers as if by magic, but there is little indication that the technology itself is made up of our own beliefs, flaws, and biases baked into the algorithms. Clear, unambiguous answers are clearly appealing, especially when the world feels unpredictable. For example, during her first year of the pandemic, I searched for: birth chart and astrology reached Highest price in 5 years World wide. One wonders how many people would turn to chatbots like Co-stars for guidance in times of crisis, to outsource decisions both large and small.
Over drinks near Co-Star’s headquarters in Manhattan, I ask if he’s worried about the risk of increasing reliance on AI for life advice. Her answers were like reading Co-stars itself, alternately vague and specific. She explained that unlike many other AI chatbots, the company does not allow users to have an ongoing conversation with the “Ask the Stars” bot. The bot resets after each question and no follow-ups are allowed to prevent people from falling too far down the rabbit hole. Guler said Costar’s staff also looks at the percentage of people who screenshot certain types of answers and whether users ask the same questions repeatedly, but she doesn’t know what to do with that information. I avoided that question. Co-Star further claims that the chatbot will reject her 20% of questions due to “potential risk.” For example, questions about self-harm.
Beyond the safeguards built into Ko Star’s operations, Güler attempted a more extensive defense, which frankly seemed nonsensical. She argued that the astrological quality provided by AI should itself be a protection against over-reliance. “My desire is to have co-starring content. actually hit, as we call it internally, is a slap in the face. Once you pause, you can’t continue consuming,” she said. “Well, no one’s crazy about Tolstoy.” She seemed to sense my suspicions. “The question is not how to prevent addiction. This is solvable, but I don’t think it’s a very interesting problem,” she continued. strike? like, Really strike? ” I nodded while she pulled out the e-cig.
As Güler and I parted ways, I saw people lined up in front of a large metal box the size of a vending machine that Co-Star was using to promote its new features. I remembered. The machine was installed in a magazine store in Manhattan over the summer, then moved to Los Angeles and runs the same software as “Ask the Stars,” but with pre-programmed questions. On the Wednesday evening I stopped by to see it, there were 10 people in line, tightly packed in the back corner of the bodega. After querying the machine, I looped back to the end of the line hoping to wait out the crowd and have it all to myself.
I asked the man behind me if he wanted to go first. He explained that he had just left and he had asked the wrong question, so he wanted to ask it again. He was curious if he could get a new job in the same industry or if he should try a completely new career. I noticed his hand being held gently and decided to give him some space. As I walked out of the store, I looked back at him and saw a lone figure embedding a question into the void.