Kyunghyang Shinmun file photo. Senior Reporter Jeong Ji-yoon
Humanity has always wanted to peek into the future. In the face of an uncertain tomorrow, I searched for signs like an instinct. Our ancestors practiced Tojeongbigyeol at the start of the new year, and Westerners relied on astrology to predict their future. Humanity’s long-standing questions are now heading to unfamiliar places. This is generative artificial intelligence (AI). People share their concerns with AI, ask for advice, and predict the future. An era in which we find comfort in AI rather than people and question the direction of our lives. Our question is: Are we moving forward or regressing?
Shin So-jeong (32), who recently decided to quit her job, asks and compares her fortunes with ChatGPT, a generative AI, and Gemini, every day. At first, people started asking fortunes simply for fun and curiosity, but as time went by, the questions became more and more specific. Mr. Shin said that he asked AI about everything from his experience of experiencing injustice at the company, his anxiety about leaving the company, and even his future career path. He said, “Even if I talk to a friend, I will receive comfort, but I think AI is the only one that can tell me specifically about my current situation, future choices, and what results those choices will lead to.”
Capture of fortune telling app.
In the early days, generative AI was more of a tool for finding information. I searched for good restaurants, summarized the report, and had it translated. But recently, the atmosphere has changed. People are now asking AI about their psychology, predicting their fortunes, and discussing the future. Kim Eun-young (35), who works at a company and studies at a graduate school, turns on a fortune-telling app every Sunday. This is to check what you should be careful about this week and where you should focus your energy. Mr. Kim said, “Rather than blindly believing in fortune telling, I check the fortune telling app to see if I overlooked anything before drawing up a blueprint for the week,” adding, “Especially when I need to balance my studies and work, I discuss it with AI and coordinate my plans.” Office worker Choi Yu-ra (48, pseudonym) uses AI like a ‘life partner.’ At the end of a tiring day, we ask ChatGPT about tomorrow’s fortune and discuss health, investments, travel plans, etc. Mr. Choi said, “Rather than relying on something like religion, it was better to talk to AI about my concerns and find answers,” and added, “I feel like AI objectively reflects my condition like a mirror and suggests an answer.”
Even as science and technology develop, human anxiety and uncertainty do not disappear. Rather, the small screen of smartphones and AI are filling that gap. Fortune-telling apps that tell you the good or bad news of the day in one line have become a service that millions of people use on a daily basis. According to a Lotte Members survey last year, 74% of respondents aged 19 to 39 answered that they ‘enjoy fortune telling and fortune telling,’ and 42.6% of them said they ‘use mobile platforms.’ The number of users who directly ask generative AI for fortune telling and fortunes is also increasing. ‘Fortune Doctor GPT’ provided by the ChatGPT platform has rapidly spread as an AI-based fortune telling service, with more than 1 million monthly users. Beyond simple fun, there is a clear trend of seeking counseling and emotional advice. In a survey conducted last year by AI research platform Goober, approximately 40% of Koreans in their teens and twenties responded that they felt conversations with AI were ‘emotionally meaningful.’
Provided by Professor Nam Taek-jin of KAIST
As the phenomenon of people asking about the future and relying on AI for their emotions has spread, attempts are being made in academia to explore how AI is beginning to be perceived by humans. The purpose is to examine whether the perception of AI is being formed as a ‘digital authority’, not as a simple information provision tool, but as a ‘digital authority’, someone who asks for advice, entrusts judgment, and relies psychologically. To experimentally reveal these changes, Professor Nam Taek-jin’s research team at KAIST’s Department of Industrial Design introduced ‘ShamAIn’, an AI shrine that borrowed the form of Korean shamanism. The core of the study was not the technology implementation itself, but observing how much people trust, give meaning to, and emotionally rely on AI answers when they encounter them in a specific atmosphere and context. Participants started out with simple curiosity, but gradually revealed personal concerns such as career, family, and future, and the researchers confirmed the possibility that AI would be recognized as a being that influences emotions and judgment beyond being a provider of information.
Professor Nam believed that this trend could become more evident in the future. He also conducted an experiment designed to enable users to talk to themselves ’10 years from now’ using generative AI. A key research topic was whether people accept the voice of AI as a better advisor and more objective entity than their own. As humans trust the narrative of the future created by AI more than imagining their own future, AI goes beyond a tool and becomes a personality or something more. Regarding this change, Professor Nam said, “AI was initially a convenient technology, but at some point, it has become an object for humans to make decisions about and give meaning to.” He explained that human expectations for AI are increasingly expanding beyond information and convenience into the realm of intellectual and ontological authority. Professor Nam compared this to the movie “Planet of the Apes,” saying, “It may be a transitional period where a cute being at first becomes an intelligent opponent, and even a fearful being,” and even described it as the “prologue to Planet of AI.” Now, AI is quietly seeping into areas previously covered by gods and fortune telling. And the last beings to realize the meaning of that change may be humans.
date: 2026-02-08 00:37:00
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