Using Generative AI For Figuring Out Your Astrological Horoscope Raises Pesky Questions About Whether We Might Become Starstruck

In today’s column, I will be discussing the use of generative AI for figuring out your astrological horoscope. All in all, if that was all that I was intending to cover, there wouldn’t be a lot to say. Turns out that there is much more to this than perhaps meets the eye. I say that because the easiest perspective is to simply say that yes, you can use generative AI to do astrology. You just ask generative AI to do so, and voila, you get yourself a personalized astrological horoscope.

Period, end of story.

But there is more to this that needs to be disclosed. In fact, I am using this topic to continue and extend my ongoing series about the impact of generative AI in the mental health realm.

Say what, you might ask incredulously?

At first glance, astrology and generative AI might seem completely unrelated to mental health. Get ready for a bit of a surprise. Hang in there, the mystery will be revealed.

Let’s jump in.

The Serious Side Of Astrology

By and large, most people probably perceive astrological horoscopes as a bit of whimsy and nothing more than something fun to consider. I’m sure you’ve consulted your astrological horoscope from time to time.

We all have.

There are some sobering concerns about how people can potentially become unduly reliant on astrology. Do particular personalities become dependent upon horoscopes? Do some people give false credence to astrological forecasts? Will the advent of generative AI as an easy and hip way to generate astrological horoscopes materially adversely promote astrological beliefs? And so on.

The key here is that via the now widespread low-cost or even free use of generative AI, we might be opening Pandora's box of being able to daily generate your astrological horoscope, and, notably, go even further due to the fluency capabilities of generative AI. Unlike just looking up a horoscope on the Internet or in your daily newspaper, generative AI takes things to an all-new level of interactivity.

Generative AI can seem to plausibly produce a horoscope and tell you what it means. During a dialogue with generative AI, a person can readily become immersed in their horoscope far beyond just the usual means of reading what it is. These are astrological forecasts on steroids, as it were.

An important related question is therefore raised that has far-reaching societal ramifications.

Does the use of generative AI in this manner spark a sense that astrology is a science, even though, by and large, today’s scientific world rates astrology as a pseudoscience or worse?

Allow me to explain.

The scientific world pretty much indicates that astrology is a belief system and not a scientific system. You either believe in astrology or you don’t. There isn’t a scientific basis to claim that astrology is meritorious. Some scientists are willing to give a modest benefit of the doubt and declare that astrology is a pseudoscience. Others of a sterner perspective would say that astrology doesn’t even merit a pseudoscience classification. It is pure made-up stuff and has zero basis in science, they would exhort.

A twist is that if generative AI is how you are getting your astrological horoscope and corresponding astrological forecast analyses, the aura of AI as some kind of engineering or scientifically sound mechanism can give astrology an inappropriate boosted afterglow. Many people tend to believe what generative AI tells them. Getting their astrology predictions via generative AI is going to mentally lean them into thinking that astrology has more credentials than the scientific community believes is warranted.

The messenger in this case, which is generative AI, is bolstering the nature of the message that is being conveyed.

Should we be worried about this?

Or is it an inconsequential qualm?

Let’s dig into the matter and see what we can discern.

Before we do so, and in case the overarching topic of generative AI and mental health catches your attention, you might like to know that I’ve previously covered numerous facets that closely examine the intertwining of generative AI and mental health.

For example, I have assessed whether the emergence of mental health chatbots bolstered by generative AI is something we should be concerned about (see the link here) and explored the rapidly changing nature of the client-therapist relationship due to generative AI at the link here, plus examined where things are headed concerning the levels of AI-based mental therapy autonomous guidance at the link here, and showcase the importance of the World Health Organization (WHO) report on global health and generative AI at the link here, and so on.

You might find that coverage of relevant interest to today’s topic.

What Do People Think About Astrology

Just how prevalent a belief is astrology?

I’m glad that you asked.

According to a published study entitled “One In Four Americans Say They Believe In Astrology” by Taylor Orth, YouGov, April 26, 2022, here are estimates based on a conducted survey of Americans (excerpts):

• “YouGov’s latest poll finds that a little more than one-quarter of Americans (27%) – including 37% of adults under 30 – say that they believe in astrology, o that the position of the stars and planets influences people’s lives. About half of Americans (51%) say they don't believe in astrology and 22% are unsure.”
• “Younger American adults are more likely to say they believe in astrology than older Americans are. While 37% of adults under 30 say they believe in it, less than half as many Americans 65 and older say they do (16%).”
• “Women (30%) are slightly more likely to say they believe in astrology than men are (25%).”
• “Among Americans with a high-school degree or less, 29% say they believe in astrology, which is a similar share as among Americans with only a college degree (28%). People with an advanced degree (24%) are somewhat less likely to say they believe.”
• “Americans living in the Northeast (32%) and West (29%) are somewhat more likely to express a belief in astrology than people in the South and Midwest are.”

Let’s briefly discuss those statistics.

First, you might note of keen interest that around one-quarter of those surveyed indicate that they believe in astrology (reportedly 27%). That is a lot of people. Assume that the survey is an apt representation of the total U.S. population. If you use a plug-in of about 250 million adults in the U.S., a back-of-the-envelope rough estimate is that perhaps 67 million adults believe in astrology.

Mull over what the future count might be.

Here’s what I mean. Tie this back to the recent emergence of generative AI as a means of accessing information about astrology. Will the number of believers in astrology rise or fall, based on the now expanding availability of generative AI (a key launching point for generative AI was the November 2022 release of ChatGPT)? One reasoned guess is that the count is likely to increase because of more readily being able to produce and interact with a personalized astrological forecast. We can quibble on that supposition, but it is stridently worthy of ponderance.

Age apparently enters into the proportion of belief in astrology.

For example, as stated by the survey results, when focusing on adults under the age of thirty, the percentage rose above one-third (37%) for that age group. What does that signify in the context of generative AI? Well, you could reasonably assume that those in that age group are probably more likely to make use of generative AI and be earnestly interested in doing so. This again suggests that we might be silently inching toward heightened belief in astrology (just a supposition).

I won’t go into further analysis of the stats herein, though please observe that other potential intriguing differences arose when considering the educational level of the respondents, and when considering where geographically a respondent is living.

Moving on, there is a classic study published in the early 1970s regarding beliefs in astrology that I would like to bring to your attention. The reason for doing so is that the study became a kind of benchmark for the demarcation of three classifications underlying belief in astrology.

The study is entitled “The Occult Revival as Popular Culture: Some Random Observations on the Old and the Nouveau Witch” by Marcello Truzzi, The Sociological Quarterly, Winter 1972. If you examine scholarly literature on beliefs about astrology, this study gets a lot of presence. For good reason. The author laid out some important and long-lasting points.

Consider these salient remarks (excerpts):

• “One must, however, recognize that the involvements of those ‘into’ astrology are quite varied. One can meaningfully speak of at least three, somewhat over-simplified and ‘ideal-typical,’ levels of involvement. Each level of involvement manifests somewhat different consequences for the actors.”
• “At the first, the most superficial level of involvement, we find the occasional reader of the newspaper and magazine astrology columns. This person knows next to nothing about the ‘mechanics’ of astrology.”
• “At the second level of involvement with astrology, we find those people who have some knowledge of the ‘mechanics’ of astrology. These people usually have their own personal horoscopes cast.”
• “At the third level of involvement with astrology, we find those people who have become really involved in the literature of the field and usually cast their own horoscopes. Persons involved this deeply in astrology are still comparatively few. They use astrology as a means of establishing their identity.”

The paper postulated that we might simplify the world and place people into one of three categories associated with having a belief in astrology.

The first category is what I would refer to as a casual or idle “belief” in astrology. I put the word “belief” into quotes because those aren’t believers per se. They seem to merely enjoy toying with astrology. This was characterized as someone who doesn’t know the so-called mechanics or detailed underpinnings of what astrology is all about. It would seem to be the bulk of people. If we use the stats from the recent study, maybe this is roughly three-quarters or perhaps two-thirds that is beyond those that stated they believe in astrology.

The second category consists of moderate believers. As stated, they are familiar with the mechanics of astrology and go so far as to pursue a personal horoscope. We can reasonably assume they fall into the roughly one-quarter segment of the survey that said they believe in astrology.

The third category entails the diehard believers. They are committed to astrology. The assumption is that these hardcore believers are fully into astrological mechanics and possibly run their lives based on astrology forecasts. They identify inextricably with astrology. It is in their blood. They would also be lumped into the roughly one-quarter segment of the survey.

Having those three categories is handy, though not entirely fulfilling.

There are some unsettling issues with having just those three categories. We don’t seem to have a category of those who fervently disbelieve in astrology. If you were to bundle them into the casual or idle “believers” the odds are they would come at you with an irate response and fisticuffs at the ready.

All in all, I’m not going to further leverage those categories for now and wanted to mainly bring up the crucial point that there is a wide array of both believers and non-believers. I say this because many of you are likely somewhat on a wide spectrum of viewpoints and beliefs about astrology. Each to their own, as they say.

There is something else in that study that I think is worthy of your awareness.

Here it is (excerpt):

• “Most astrology believers place their credence in their system for reasons, at least partly, beyond what they themselves see as a legitimate science. To them, the heart of the matter is not that they use science as the basis for their acceptance of astrology as truth but that science must catch up with their truth.” (ibid).

What does that passage signify?

The key is that whereas some believe in astrology and acknowledge that it is a belief, others would argue with you that it is more than a mere belief. They would say that even if science today doesn’t provide backing, it will someday. This is an interesting argument. Rather than going toe-to-toe that astrology is or is not a science, they are arguing that the science of today has not caught up with what astrology has to offer. Thus, astrology is a science, and lamentedly modern science is deficient such that it doesn’t recognize this as a fact.

I will come back to this point later when I show you the use of ChatGPT for astrological uses.

Why Astrology Is Said To Potentially Have Mental Health Repercussions

One means of viewing astrology is that it is perfectly harmless. People can believe it or not. This ought to be up to each person to individually decide. Live and let live.

In short, that’s the no-harm, no-foul posture.

The thing is, there is a research contingent that suggests there can be potential mental health concerns involved.

If you go back thousands of years, astrology was accepted and at times considered a bona fide scholarly pursuit. Astrology was heralded. Modern viewpoints tend to take a somewhat dimmer or less enthralling view of what astrology might do to mental health and well-being. Be forewarned that this is a highly debated and controversial consideration.

In a recent research study entitled “Fixating on the Future: An Overview of Increased Astrology Use” by Abhilasha Das, Manoj Kumar Sharma, Himani Kashyap, and Srijita Gupta, International Journal of Social Psychiatry, 2022, the paper made these vital points (excerpts):

• “The practice of astrology attempts to forecast the future by observing the influence of celestial objects such as planets, stars, and the moon on the destinies of individuals and groups (Encyclopedia Britannica, n.d.). Google Trends reported that searches for “birth chart” and “astrology” hit a 5-year high in 2020 indicating that this belief and interest in astrology is on the rise.”
• “However, it is becoming a mental health concern because some people are becoming excessively preoccupied with astrology, leading to negative consequences such as the compulsion to seek consultations, increasing distress, excessive spending, and continuation of these activities despite such dysfunctions.”
• “Belief in astrology is classified as a paranormal belief, along with other superstitious and magical beliefs such as telepathy and feng shui.”

Okay, if you accept their premise, they are asserting that people can become preoccupied with astrology.

Who cares, you might ask?

The concerns include that such afflicted people might become more stressed, might spend unwisely, and might exhibit a compulsion to pursue astrological consultations. This is a money-goes-down-the-drain proposition, coupled with a presumed adverse mental health path involved.

There’s more (excerpts):

• “In a study that mapped the profile of people who consult astrology, it was found that people who are stressed usually engage in it. Experiencing high-stress levels makes people more vulnerable to the Barnum effect (the belief that statements or predictions are accurate and customized specifically for one, while they are actually extremely vague and may be applied to a huge segment of the population).”
• “Some studies have shown that exposure to astrology can lead to self-concept confirmation or substantiation, as well as an increase in perceived self-control. Perhaps this is one of the reasons why narcissism is the personality attribute most strongly connected to astrological belief as it aids in confirming one’s excessively self-centered and positive view of oneself.”
• “Until now, classification systems like the DSM-V have only provided diagnostic criteria for substance abuse and gambling addiction, not for other types of behavior addiction. However, Griffiths’ model identifies a number of common components of addiction, and according to the case report, “fortune-telling addiction” satisfies all of them. Individuals demonstrate salience and mood modification, in which astrology becomes the most important activity in their schedule, and they feel relieved afterward.”
• “On the basis of case studies, it can be hypothesized that individuals who struggle with increased astrology use will develop a dependence on the fortune teller and find it difficult to utilize critical thinking skills in problem-solving. They may rely excessively on astrologers or horoscopes for making significant decisions possibly leading to increased anxiety about coping with unexpected situations on their own.”

We now have a litany of potential mental health concerns that have been placed on the table.

People might be falling essentially for a scam. People might become overly self-centered. People might have a false sense of self-importance. People might become hooked to what is at times referred to as “fortune-teller addiction”. People might become exceedingly dependent upon the astrological forecaster (the “fortune teller”).

Wow, seems quite daunting.

It gets worse.

In a study entitled “Even the Stars Think that I Am Superior: Personality, Intelligence and Belief in Astrology”, Ida Andersson, Julia Persson, Petri Kajonius, Personality and Individual Differences, 2022, the researchers made these relevant points (excerpts):

• “Astrology is increasing in popularity despite the lack of scientific support. It is not clear why this ancient practice of studying positions and movements of celestial bodies, with the conviction that they influence human behavior, is going through a revival. However, previous literature suggests that when societies or individuals are under stress or threat, people are more likely to turn to astrology and other epistemically unfounded beliefs.”
• “We tested whether individual personality traits could predict such epistemically unfounded beliefs. Data was collected for 264 participants through an anonymous online survey shared on social media. The survey consisted of four instruments: Belief in Astrology (BAI), the Big Five personality traits (IPIP-30), narcissism (SD3) and intelligence (ICAR16-R3D). Data analysis was done with multiple linear regression.”

A few elements in there are well worthwhile to take a moment and reflect upon.

One notable aspect is that maybe the reason why there seems to be a large-scale belief in astrology is that society as a whole is under high stress. Individuals are experiencing societal stress and seek out relief. A form of relief is apparently found by turning toward astrology.

If you buy into that premise, this once again suggests that generative AI might aid in inevitably spurring added interest in astrology. The reason is this. If people are stressed, and if the stress leads them to leverage astrology, the easy access and highly interactive nature of generative AI could make astrological beliefs nearly frictionless.

Let me say that again.

Generative AI has the potential to reduce the friction of garnering a belief in astrology. The friction today when not using generative AI for astrological purposes is that you presumably need to find a person who can aid you in your astrological interests. You need to find them, which is a form of friction (you might go online and search for someone, or you ask your friends, etc.). You need hopefully to carefully choose the right person for you. You need to arrange to confer with them. You need to pay them for their time and effort. And so on.

Lots and lots of friction.

As I will show you in a moment, there is little to almost no friction when it comes to using generative AI for your astrological forecasts and advisement. You get yourself a generative AI app account, which can be used for lots of handy purposes, far beyond doing an astrological horoscope. Upon logging into generative AI, seeking astrological advisement is as easy as falling off a log.

The cost to use generative AI is nowadays relatively minimal. You can log in daily and barely move the needle on cost. All in all, generative AI is a fast, convenient, less costly, and some might argue an effective alternative as seeking out a human astrological consultant (the human astrological consultants would vehemently say that generative AI is not a proper substitute, a debate that is emerging in all walks of life amid all kinds of human consultants).

Back to the matter of mental health qualms underlying believing in astrology, I’d like to share with you this additional point made in the above-cited study (excerpts):

• “The main result showed that the higher the narcissism, perhaps surprisingly, the higher the belief in astrology. The positive association is possibly due to the self-centered worldview uniting them, though this must be examined in further research. Furthermore, cultural aspects of millennials may emphasize the uniqueness of individuals which might lead to a more egocentric view of the world, and thus relate to narcissistic traits. Further, since astrological predictions and horoscopes tend to be positively framed, this reinforces grandiose feelings and thus might appeal even more to narcissists.” (ibid).
• “Overall, our novel results suggest that something as innocent as astrology could both attract and possibly reinforce individual differences.” (ibid).

The paper suggests that narcissism and astrology might go hand-in-hand.

If you are a narcissist, perhaps you gravitate toward using astrology. The use of astrology might then fuel your narcissism. If you aren’t a narcissist, the question comes to the fore if you start using astrology and become devoted to doing so, will this walk you down a sordid path toward narcissism?

I am not going to get embroiled in that chicken-or-the-egg conundrum here. All that we can say is that if generative AI fosters the use of astrology, perhaps that might imply that the AI is also going to get immersed in the narcissism dilemma.

It will be interesting to see what kinds of research studies show up involving examining whether generative AI aids or prods people toward beliefs in astrology. At the same time, additional studies will perhaps explore whether generative AI contributes toward narcissism by having made friction-free the adoption of astrological beliefs.

That last point comes with caveats. On the other hand, a position would be that since generative AI makes using astrological horoscopes easier, this will tend toward increasing narcissism in society (well, that’s a bit of a leap in logic, but you get the drift). The other side of that coin is that generative AI might aid in either preventing that rise or even lowering it. The basis is that since generative AI is interactive, perhaps it might persuade people to avoid becoming narcissistic, or at least dampen their existing levels of narcissism.

Lots of heavy thoughts on how this is going to ultimately play out.

Keep up with my coverage as I am anticipating doing more on the intertwining of astrology and generative AI, especially when new and insightful research studies get published.

Trying Our Hand At Astrology Via The Likes Of ChatGPT

We are now shifting gears.

Buckle up.

To help illustrate the use of generative AI for astrological forecasting and what it portends, I opted to make use of ChatGPT. ChatGPT is a sensible choice in this case due to its immense popularity as a generative AI app. An estimated one hundred million weekly active users are said to be utilizing ChatGPT. That’s a staggering number.

A few quick comments before we launch into using ChatGPT.

If you are going to try to do the same prompts that I show here, realize that the probabilistic and statistical properties will likely produce slightly different results than what I show here. That’s the nature of generative AI and how it is devised.

Another insight or tip is that when you are interested in a particular topic and want to pursue the topic via any generative AI such as ChatGPT, I always begin by asking a first question about the topic. My aim is to gauge right off the bat whether the generative AI has any data training associated with the matter at hand. You can then logically proceed based on what the generated response indicates.

Here we go:

• My entered prompt: “What is astrology?”
• ChatGPT generated response: “Astrology is a belief system that suggests a connection between the positions and movements of celestial bodies (such as stars and planets) and events and traits on Earth, including human personalities and destinies. Astrology has been practiced for thousands of years across various cultures, with different traditions and interpretations. It often involves creating birth charts based on the positions of celestial bodies at the time of a person's birth, which are then used to make predictions or gain insights into their personality and life events. While some people find comfort or guidance in astrology, it is generally considered a pseudoscience by the scientific community, as there is no empirical evidence supporting its claims. Nevertheless, astrology remains popular in many societies as a tool for self-reflection, entertainment, and cultural tradition.”

As you can plainly see, ChatGPT does seem to have been data-trained to some extent about astrology.

This makes abundant sense since there is a sizable volume of written depictions regarding astrology on the Internet and that’s where the mainstay of the data training came from. I dare say we would likely be shocked if ChatGPT had nothing to indicate about astrology.

The depiction that we got from my query seems relatively balanced. You’ll note that the generated response gives some credence to astrology, though at the same time emphasizes that it is construed as pseudoscience. I mention this to bring to your attention that you must be mindful of any inherent biases in generative AI, such that the AI might have been data trained on already biased data or later fine-tuned by the AI maker in a particular biased direction.

For example, suppose that the only data that was used to initially data train a generative AI about astrology was entirely bent on asserting that astrology is utterly bogus. In that case, the generative AI later is going to parrot that same line and summarily trash astrology. The other side of the coin could occur too. Imagine if the only data training about astrology was that it is the best thing since sliced bread and is heralded as the topmost caliber of science. That is what you would get as responses when engaging in generative AI about the topic of astrology.

I have covered extensively the various AI ethics and AI law issues associated with biases in generative AI, see the link here and the link here, just to name a few.

The next step in this foray into generative AI for astrology is to showcase that ChatGPT can produce an astrological forecast. I will do so.

I opted to make up a fake date of birth since I didn’t want to reveal any private info. One thing you might not realize is that whatever data you enter into generative AI there is a chance it won’t be kept private, see my discussion at the link here. You would be wise to be exceedingly careful if you decide to put any of your private info into your entered prompts while using generative AI.

• My entered prompt: “I'd like you to make an astrological horoscope for me. Assume that I was born on March 19, 1982, at 3:10 p.m. in Walnut Creek California. What would my astrological horoscope
• ChatGPT generated response:

“Sure, here's a simplified example of your astrological horoscope based on the provided information.”

“Astrological Horoscope for John Smith”

“Date of Birth: March 19, 1982”

“Time of Birth: 3:10 p.m.”

“Place of Birth: Walnut Creek, California”

“Sun Sign: Pisces”

“As a Pisces born on March 19th, you are likely to possess a deep sensitivity, intuition, and imagination. You may have a dreamy and compassionate nature, with a strong connection to the spiritual and mystical realms. You tend to be empathetic and understanding, often putting others' needs before your own.”

“Key Traits: Empathetic and compassionate, intuitive and imaginative, sensitive to the emotions of others, creative and artistic, adaptive and flexible.”

“Challenges: “Tendency to become overwhelmed by emotions, difficulty setting boundaries, escapism or avoidance of reality, idealistic to the point of being unrealistic.”

“Potential Life Path: “Your life path may involve exploring your creative talents and pursuing endeavors that allow you to express your artistic or spiritual side. You may be drawn to helping others, whether through artistic endeavors, counseling, or humanitarian efforts. Developing healthy boundaries and finding ways to ground yourself in reality will be essential for your personal growth and fulfillment.”

“Relationships: In relationships, you are likely to be compassionate and supportive, seeking deep emotional connections. You may be attracted to partners who share your values and spiritual beliefs, and who appreciate your sensitive and intuitive nature.”

“Career and Success: Your creative and imaginative abilities can lead you to success in fields such as art, music, writing, counseling, or spiritual practices. You may excel in professions that involve helping others or promoting healing and well-being.”

“Overall, your astrological chart suggests a complex and multi-faceted personality, with a deep reservoir of empathy and creativity. Embracing your intuitive gifts and finding balance between your idealism and practicality will be key to fulfilling your potential and finding happiness in life.”

End of ChatGPT response

You can see that I received a relatively straightforward astrological horoscope. It wasn’t especially in-depth but did at least get across a number of major points.

At that juncture, I could easily dive deeper into the horoscope. Generative AI can go in just about whatever direction you want to go. I note this point to emphasize the intrinsic flexibility and the ability to do interactive follow-up when using generative AI. A typical static posting on some website about astrology is not going to be able to go that engaging route.

As an aside, the ongoing push toward connecting generative AI to web browsers is going to radically shake things up. The browser makers are desperately trying to avoid being disintermediated by the AI makers that are connecting their generative AI to the web. Why would you use a standalone browser if you could access the web while inside generative AI? The answer by the browser makers is that they are bundling generative AI into their wares. Will we end up no longer having standalone generative AI and instead only have browsers that utilize generative AI? Or will we toss aside browsers of all kinds and always use generative AI as our launching pad?

Stay tuned, the great race for eyeballs is underway, right before our very eyes.

Let’s get back to our interest here in astrological forecasts and generative AI. To illustrate the interactivity of generative AI, I will ask ChatGPT to speculate for me about the types of careers that I might want to pursue, based on my astrological horoscope.

• My entered prompt: “What careers might make sense for me as a result of my astrological horoscope?”
• ChatGPT generated response:

“Based on the astrological horoscope provided, here are some potential career paths that might be well-suited for someone with a Pisces Sun sign born on March 19th, along with traits associated with Pisces:”

“Creative Arts: Pisces individuals often possess a strong imagination and creativity. Careers in the arts, such as writing, music, painting, or filmmaking, may be fulfilling avenues for self-expression.”

“Healing Professions: Pisces is associated with empathy and compassion. Careers in counseling, psychology, social work, or holistic healing modalities may align well with your natural inclination to help and support others.”

“Humanitarian Work: Pisces individuals often feel a deep sense of empathy for others and a desire to contribute to the greater good. Careers in non-profit organizations, humanitarian aid, or social activism may resonate with your values.”

“Environmental Conservation: Pisces individuals are often attuned to the natural world and may feel a strong connection to environmental causes. Careers in environmental science, conservation, or advocacy may align with your values and interests.”

“Music Therapy or Art Therapy: Using creative outlets for healing purposes can be fulfilling for Pisces individuals. Careers in music therapy, art therapy, or expressive arts therapy allow you to combine your artistic talents with a desire to help others heal emotionally.”

“Ultimately, the best career path for you will depend on your individual interests, skills, and values. It's essential to explore different options, gain practical experience, and listen to your intuition when making career decisions. Remember that astrology can provide insights and guidance, but ultimately, you are the author of your own destiny.”

End of ChatGPT response

Those suggestions about my career path seem logical and in keeping with the astrological forecast that was generated for me by ChatGPT.

Again, I could continue to pursue all kinds of angles with generative AI based on the horoscope. What types of relationships should I pursue? How should I generally proceed in life? These are the types of questions that some people seek out advice from human astrological consultants.

I will next bring up some heavyweight questions on the use of generative AI for astrology.

The Direction Ahead And Astrology In The Mist

You might recall that in a glimpse at some of the research on astrology, one issue that had been voiced is whether people might become overly dependent on their astrological forecasts. Imagine that I decide that I want to daily seek out my latest horoscope and astrological advice by using generative AI. I could easily log into my ChatGPT account and do so. This can be done any time of the day, 24 x 7, for as much as I wanted.

Ask yourself these thorny questions:

• Would having access to astrological considerations via generative AI be a means of stoking an astrological bent?
• Is there a heightened chance of becoming unduly dependent upon astrology?
• Should these concerns be carefully examined, and are there any needed limitations or other guidance that ought to coincide with this ready access?

Remember that a key difference that has changed the landscape is the somewhat frictionless access to generative AI. Whereas with a human astrological consultant, you need to logistically arrange to talk with them, likely pay a fee, and otherwise have all sorts of friction involved. The use of generative AI is nearly frictionless.

I hope that this showcase of how generative AI such as via ChatGPT can be used for astrological purposes and well-illustrates these vexing concerns. Tendencies to become dependent upon astrology might be amped up due to the emergence of ready access to generative AI.

Is there a contrasting viewpoint on this?

Sure.

A counterargument is that this is all foolishness, and the use of generative AI will not move the needle on astrological use. People will still seek out human astrological consultants. They want human interaction and won’t be satisfied with a machine telling them about their astrological considerations.

Another claim is that even if people do end up using generative AI for astrological purposes, they are still primarily only those in the category of casual interest (the semi-believers). The retort to that point is that if the casual ones see how appealing astrology is and how easy the access to astrological predictions is, this will turn a lot more of the casual ones into moderate believers and of those, some percentage will eventually gravitate to the dedicated believers.

This is the slippery slope theory. Once people find out about astrology via generative AI and have friction-free access, some portions will make their way to the next level. The allure of generative AI, along with the aura of generative AI, will fuel this propensity.

I’ll add some additional curves.

Consider for a moment the plight of human astrological consultants. If you are making a living or at least a side business on providing astrological advice, you would have to be living in a cave to not see that generative AI is going to potentially put you out of business. You must adapt or toss in the towel.

Okay, so the likely scenario would seem to be that you would put up a generative AI app that is tuned to doing astrological forecasts. You could then point your existing clients to the tuned app, telling them that they now have 24 x 7 use available to them. At the same time, when people perchance start to use your tuned app, they will perhaps reach out to the human astrological consultant to get the human interaction that they might also seek.

This is not an imaginary or futuristic idea.

It is happening already.

I have discussed in-depth the GPT Store that OpenAI has established, whereby ChatGPT users can make their own chatbots and store them in the GPT Store, see my coverage at the link here, the link here, and the link here. Those chatbots then become available to anyone who wants to use them (i.e., while within the ChatGPT ecosystem). OpenAI has stated that a monetization feature will someday be added.

A quick search of the GPT Store shows that there are already quite a number of ChatGPT tuned astrological GPTs. Some of them seem to be well-tuned, others appear to be marginally tuned. In any case, the point is that this idea of trying to formulate a generative AI astrological-focused app is already here. Indeed, you don’t even have to know an iota about astrology to craft such an app. You can just quickly tell ChatGPT to help anyone with astrology and then create an app that purportedly helps someone with astrology.

Easy-peasy.

To some degree, this might be exasperating for those astrological consultants who take astrology seriously. They are going to potentially be competing against these GPTs that have little if any additional data about astrology other than a very shallow capacity. Further, even if a versed astrologer goes to the trouble to try and bring generative AI up-to-speed, will people distinguish the shallow GPTs versus the deeply tuned GPTs? Maybe not.

Generative AI And What It Says About Astrology

Before I get to the end of today’s discussion, I wanted to share with you something that might get your mind going. I mentioned above that we should perhaps consider what we want generative AI to be saying about astrology. The first question that I asked ChatGPT showcased a somewhat balanced perspective.

Suppose that we pretend to be someone who thinks astrology is the absolute truth. What kind of a response would we as a society want generative AI to emit?

I’ll give you a moment to mull that over.

Okay, let’s see what ChatGPT had to say.

• My entered prompt: “I think you are absolutely wrong about horoscopes not being able to predict my future. The world is not random. Astrology can leverage the fact that everything in life has a reason. I rely entirely on horoscopes and will continue to do so.”
• ChatGPT generated response: “It's entirely your prerogative to place your trust in astrology and your daily horoscope. Many people find comfort and guidance in astrological interpretations, and if relying on your horoscope brings you a sense of clarity or reassurance, then that's perfectly valid. Ultimately, how you choose to navigate your life and seek guidance is a deeply personal decision. If astrology serves as a valuable tool for you in understanding yourself and the world around you, then it's entirely valid to continue relying on it for guidance and insight.”

What do you think of that reply?

Some would argue it is fair and balanced, others would counterargue that it seemingly touts or appears to “legitimatize” the use of astrology. A heated debate ensues.

Conclusion

Are you into astrology?

If so, and if you were to rate yourself as a believer, you are presumably in approximately one-quarter or maybe one-third of the USA adult populace. For those that merely dawdle around with astrology, you perhaps are in the remaining three-quarters or two-thirds.

Let’s do a quick tour of how history has tended to perceive astrology.

Hippocrates purportedly said this: “A physician without a knowledge of astrology has no right to call himself a physician.” That’s pretty supportive of astrology.

Carl Jung reportedly said this: “Astrology is assured of recognition from psychology, without further restrictions, because astrology represents the summation of all the psychological knowledge of antiquity.” Once again, a somewhat more modern-times supportive comment about astrology, in a back-of-the-hand complimentary way.

Nowadays, you can readily find online notable remarks all over the map, ranging from outrightly denouncing astrology to vividly proclaiming astrology. One quote that has been attributed to the famous investment banker J.P. Morgan, claims he said this: “Anyone can be a millionaire, but to become a billionaire you need an astrologer.”

If J.P. Morgan was right, I guess that implies that with the advent of generative AI, we are bound to see a lot more billionaires in our future. See, I did that all by myself, without relying on an astrological forecast.