What if frantically asking ChatGPT questions was less about a quest for truth and more about a need to ward off anxiety? In the digital age, are we witnessing the return of oracles?
Humans faced with uncertainty need ways to ward off its potentially deleterious effects on their lives. Whether we consider this a simple survival instinct or a cultural heritage, one fact remains: in many societies, specific rituals are available to manage these uncertainties. The oracle is one of the most well-known of these rituals in the West due to the importance of ancient Greece in our collective imagination. A powerful person or an ordinary citizen wonders about their future, so they consult the Pythia, priestess of the oracle, to read the signs of the gods. But beware, contrary to popular belief, it is not a matter of “predicting the future,” but of telling the solicitor what they should think and do to ensure a more favorable destiny. In other words, they are told how to read the complexity of the world and how to act to influence their future. Oracle logic is expressed in various forms from one society to another. But, whether in astrology, divination, the reading of entrails or the flight of birds, whether in the invocation of the gods or even in prayer, it is always characterized by the same logical sequence and its expected results are always similar: it is a question of conforming to a way of questioning the future, of sharing one’s concerns with others, in order to determine together “what to think” and “what to do.” This is how oracular rites are expressed: from a feeling of uncertainty, the individual engages with an “expert”, who accompanies him to understand what is going on and what can happen. The ritual transforms his question into an action to be committed: a tree must be planted, an animal sacrificed, a pilgrimage made, etc. Thus humanity has built itself by going through fears and crises, but above all by relying on this ancient means of collectively managing worries. Western societies have replaced oracular rites with science. And when science fails to allay fears, then the logic of the oracle is likely to take over. As humans, we each run the risk of being seduced by its benefits, especially when worry is the order of the day. In this context, what matters most is the benefit that oracular logic provides. Shaping the questioning. Sharing one’s concerns with an “expert.” Getting answers to the questions: What should I think? And what should I do? It is not about “predicting the future”, but about providing the feeling of having control over one’s “destiny”. Despite the triumph of the Enlightenment and science, whose decline we sometimes sense, oracular logic persists in its ancient forms. For example, the continued success of astrology betrays our collective tendency to rely on this means of regulating anxiety. More worry and less science always imply a greater risk of humans returning to oracular logic. We must find relief in an anxiety-provoking context…
AI is an oracle that does not predict the future
Among the many uses of generative artificial intelligence (AI), several reveal the return of oracular logic. AI bases its analyses on a set of data. These are contemporary signs. We consult the internet. We consult search engines. And we consult AI . We ask it a question. The AI reads the available signs and, faced with the immensity of the available information, it restores a semblance of coherence to a complex world. It formulates an interpretation. It makes legible what was previously incomprehensible to the individual. Thus, faced with doubtless legitimate uncertainties, young people tell us they consult AI, like Kelly, 17, who tells us as part of a survey we are conducting :“We girls in general have already had this apprehension, for example for the first period, the first intercourse. I didn’t necessarily talk about it to my mother or a doctor so I searched on Google. And it’s true that I had some not-so-cool things, which made me think a lot some nights […]. When I had my very first period, I asked [Google] why the blood turns brown, things like that. And it’s true that the answers, quickly, were: “Ah, well! You might have cancer.” I find that there is a lot more nonsense on the Internet whereas AI, once you trust it, you see that what it says isn’t nonsense. It’s good for relaxing and stopping being afraid of everything and nothing, in fact.”“AI is good for resting. To stop being afraid.” Not only does AI fulfill, in this example, the function of the oracular rite, but it also allows the staging of its ritual process: a felt uncertainty, the formulation of a question, the handing over of oneself to an “expert,” the waiting for an interpretation that tells us what to think and possibly what to do, as well as the temporary warding off of the feeling of uncertainty. Moreover, in this survey we are conducting among young people on their uses of AI, oracular logic is expressed in different ways. For example, most of them do not use AI permanently for their schoolwork, but rather when they do not know what to answer, when they do not understand or when the pressure is too great, that is to say when the anxiety about the near future of the evaluation becomes unbearable. That AI does not formulate the truth, but plausible answers, is no longer always the most important thing in this context . What matters, for the oracular individual, is first and foremost the calming effect that its use allows.
