The machine stood beside a deli counter, towering over
cardboard boxes piled near the entrance to the Iconic Magazines store. It had
the stature of a standing washer-dryer, with black buttons, rows of blinking
lights and gauges labeled with celestial bodies — “sun,” “moon” and the eight
planets — on the front of its white facade.
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“It could be something from NASA,” said Tim Wiedmann, a
27-year-old student from Germany who visited the Manhattan store on a Wednesday
night in June.
While Wiedmann stood in front of the machine, its front
screen directed him to “ask the stars.” Using a knob, he cycled through some
100 questions. Among them: How do I get better at my job? Should I leave New
York? Should I start a cult?
After choosing a question, Wiedmann entered his birthdate,
time and place. The screen flashed a message that read, in part: “All answers
are based on astrological calculations.” The machine, using a built-in camera,
took his picture. Moments later, it spat out a piece of paper containing his
grainy portrait and an answer to his question.
“It is like someone is in there,” said Wiedmann, who was one
of many who came to use the machine that night. At times, lines started to
snake through the store as people waited for a turn. A lot of visitors said
they had heard about the machine on TikTok, including two 19-year-old students.
“I asked for my red flags,” one of the students said of the
question he chose, before the other student read the machine’s printed answer
aloud.
She said: “Your red flags include a tendency to set high
expectations and a fear of conflict. Your Jupiter and Saturn placement suggests
a need for perfectionism and a fear of rejection. By avoiding conflict, you may
limit your potential for growth and meaningful connections. Remember, conflict
is an inherent part of intimacy. Practice it with compassion and let go of
unrealistic expectations.”
Like most people who used the machine that night, neither he
nor she initially knew that its answers were generated using artificial
intelligence, including ChatGPT and GPT-3.
The machine was developed by Co-Star, a technology company
with a buzzy astrology app that uses AI to generate readings. It will be at
Iconic Magazines for most of the summer and then move to Los Angeles.
Astrologers for centuries have referred to the movement and
positions of planets and other celestial bodies to inform readings and
horoscopes. Co-Star follows similar methods, but its daily readings are
prepared by AI that pulls text from a database written for the app by a team of
astrologers and poets.
The machine, which was free to use, was created to promote
Co-Star’s new in-app service, Embrace the Void, which starts at about $1. The
service functions similarly to the machine: Users can ask open-ended questions
that are not normally addressed in the app’s astrological readings and receive
answers generated by AI using Co-Star’s database of prepared text.
Co-Star founder Banu Guler, 35, named a range of aesthetic
inspirations for the machine, including Soviet-era computers, devices used by
NASA, photo booths, and vending and washing machines. It was also influenced by
the Zoltar fortunetelling machines that were once common attractions at
boardwalks and arcades, she said.
“The best part is you get your little reading,” Guler said
of the Zoltar machines. “And then you put your reading on your fridge, or in
your book or in your journal, or it just loiters at the bottom of your bag for
months, if you’re me.
“Even though you know it is garbage, it is special garbage,”
she added, flashing a smirk.
Before starting Co-Star in 2017, Guler was working in art
sales. She said that back then, she taught herself how to code AI that could
predict how certain factors, like the weather on the date of an auction, might
influence the sale price of an artwork. She later drew on what she had learned
about AI to develop Co-Star.
Vijender Sharma, an astrologer of 35 years in northern India
who specializes in Vedic astrology, said he has used software to prepare
readings. He said that because astrology was informed by science, as long as AI
was trained with the proper knowledge, he did not see any harm in using the
technology.
Susan Miller, an astrologer in New York who has written
horoscopes for decades, was more skeptical.
“AI is exciting for things like splitting atoms,” she said,
adding that she would not trust such technology in a practice that often deals
with human emotions. “Machines make mistakes,” Miller said. “And the person who
gets the answer may walk around with that wrong answer in their head forever.”
After checking out the Co-Star machine at the magazine shop,
Nisarga Kadam, 23, who works in financial technology in New York, was also
skeptical of its AI-generated answers.
“It is a bunch of trained words put together,” Kadam said.
“It’s not personal.”
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