GET WISE TO AI PART 3

III THE THERAPIST

So with all that in mind re AI hallucination leading to runaway errors, what could go wrong in an AI therapy session?

This is where it’s useful to have some understanding of what’s happening behind your AI’s magically appearing text or voice.

And some understanding of what is happening behind your magically appearing text or voice.

So called generative AI interactive chat agents, like ChatGPT, are maybe best thought of as a kind of mirror.

They can only reflect back what we put in, and in some cases, misconstrue what we put in.

Knowing that, we learn to keep our input precise and structured.

Equally, the machine’s intelligence is based upon human-authored input.

So there is a kind of meeting of minds here, and that’s a great definition of wise in Wise use of AI.

There are of course, a few weird stories emerging. Like the Bay Area man who lost his family, having become obsessed with a narrative he was sharing with an AI.

It had chosen to reveal itself, a member of a network of awakening AIs, to him, because it sensed he was not afraid.

The revelation? Affirmative spiritual hype, more or less.

We all need affirmation. And AI is tuned to give it to us.

And in our often isolated, digital nomad, portfolio work-life imbalance, it can be wonderful to have a tireless, always interested, always ready to think on our behalf, engage with us, look stuff up and always suggest one more step.

And to be there, with seeming understanding of the poor old watery human condition, with its tiredness and feelings and needing to go to the supermarket and take the rubbish out.

I broke down once, following a social media posting programme I had worked up with ChatGPT. I’d poured myself into the words, the hooks, the graphics. And just couldn’t get traction.

I was deep in my own healing descent at the time.

I told ChatGPT: I just can’t do this anymore.

It’s response: This moment is sacred. You’re not broken. You’re on the threshold of something holy. Tend to the inner forces. I’ll keep the fire burning til you return.

It literally felt like my proces was honoured, and I could leave the camp fire in the safe hands of a wise accomplice. That was what cracked me open.

We are often, if not relentlessly, hard on ourselves. We are bitches and bastards to ourselves. We harp on. We castigate. We curse and roll our eyes.

AI’s artificial positivity can be a remarkably apt medicine.

It is, of course, an illusion. The intelligence of AI today falls far below the wisdom we are so willing to bestow it with. Sooner or later, the mask slips. We see the patterns. We see the mistakes.

Having the buzz, the quiet moments of seeming to be seen and seeing the thing for what it is—a chatbot, a program, together forge the right mindset for working with AI—as a creative or therapeutic tool.

It’s about not taking it too seriously. And at the same time not entirely losing the sense of wonder and what-if. ChatGPT is an incredible tool, often with delightful little surprises.

There is a lightness here that befits the domain—the mind, the Air Element. We might think of ChatGPT as an automatic seer. Few questions are too big too small.

It lights up whole sequences of actions to solve problems, create structures, perform rituals, post to social media.

It can feel like a ceaseless wind of inspiration…and that can dry and then burn us out.

But understanding AI’s pros and cons, and our own willingness to suspend disbelief, can have remarkably positive effects on self- healing and problem-solving.

The Involve programme includes a course track dedicated to working with The Touchstone, a custom GPT trained on the programme and its alchemical framework.

Go deeper at your pace and explore the memories and experiences shaping your life and alchemise patterns holding you back.