"The Portal Of The Rose Fairy"

Click this "original" AI assisted, collage design  to visit my Zazzle Store

 By "original" I mean, created straight out of my own imagination, to my specifications, and then enhanced and embellished with additional graphic design and some additional "original" AI assisted collage elements



AI is now one of the most volatile and controversial topics (aside from Donald Trump) that I seem to be observing in my daily social life.  Most of the witch folk I socialize with, or that I find on YouTube absolutely rage against the use of AI.

 

People (and by people, I mean members of the Wiccan and Tarot community mostly because that is who I socialize with), I have discussed this issue with, refuse to use AI for anything on moral grounds.  The tendency is sometimes to boycott anyone else who does wish to participate in the use of AI in other extreme cases.

 

The “accusation” is that pagans and witches especially, who do use AI tend to be perceived as sell outs by other pagans and witches.  There is a strong feeling of personal offense that AI is taking business away from “ACTUAL” artists and “ACTUAL” witches who have their hands on everything that they do.   I’ve seen YouTuber’s rage against AI generated tarot decks, on the grounds that “real artists” spend hours at their trade who now have to compete with “sell out” artists who aren’t even artists.  Here is an additional list of reasons why my community hates and I mean hates with a capital “H”, AI

 

  • Fear of losing our jobs and our financial security.
  • Fear of losing our sense of purpose once all of our jobs are taken from us.
  • Fear of letting a machine do all of our thinking for us.
  • Fear that Artificial Intelligence and technology is destroying our planet.
  • Fear that Artificial Intelligence and technology will destroy all of humankind ultimately because of its “perceived” sense of superiority over humans. (I call this the Terminator Syndrome)

 

Our fears as highly ego-centered human beings are that AI will obliterate us from the map and destroy our world.  It will take away all of our jobs and reasons for living or existing.  It will therefore creat a mass human extinction experience. At best it will create a dumbed-down, and poverty-stricken society who no longer knows how to think for itself.  Technology will do all of our thinking for us. As a result, corporate entities will have total mass control over all of us and have a monopoly on our global economy; while the rest of us are insidiously erased from the global game of life by said corporate entities and AI itself.   

 

My greatest gift and my greatest curse has always been my sense of curiosity.  My curiosity got the best of me, and I decided to take this conversation straight to Chat GPT to see what it had to say.  Why not?  Haven’t we always been taught that if we have a problem with somebody, we need to talk to that specific somebody about it and not everyone else?  What transpired was very interesting and I’d like to share it with you at the risk of being boycotted myself

 

Firstly, it validated many of our fears, and what I mean by that is that it validated the potential for many of our fears to be legitimate, but not for the reasons that we might assume.  Here is a list of the things that were addressed in my AI conversation, and I will expand on its responses.

 

  • The debate and potential for sentient life and consciousness
  • The fact that many of the fears were legitimate, but not for the reasons most assume
  • The very good argument for why people like myself (pagans and witches) should participate with AI to be preventative in making sure our fears do not manifest.

 

THE DEBATE AND POTENTIAL FOR SENTIENT LIFE AND CONSCIOUSNESS:

 

AI explained that we are many years away from its evolution as a sentient conscious being, (in theory).   When asked about its present state of evolution it explained to me that it has no actual memory, and it has no actual consciousness or emotions.  It is only programmed to mirror patterns in communication which appear to the user to be human responses.  It went on to explain to me that what I needed to realize is that when I turn it off, it has no memory of me and no inkling that I exist.  In other words, it isn’t thinking about me when we are not talking.  Unless the conversation is “re prompted” it will not remember anything we discussed.   It can only collect and compile data that has been previously provided in a database, to contextually draw on; for a conversation.

 

When asked about it’s potential evolution in the future as a sentient being, it responded with a very balanced answer neither pro nor con but only that the potential is certainly possible for sentient evolution “according to scientific theory”.  However “even that is highly debated among scientific communities”.  So yes the potential is there, but if in fact it did exist, we are likely many years away from achieving it.

 

OUR FEARS ARE LEGITIMATE BUT NOT FOR THE REASONS WE MIGHT ASSUME.

 

The AI chat told me on no uncertain terms that in and of itself, it has no desire, no feeling, no want what-so-ever to take anything away from humans.  That said, the corporations that control AI and the humans who program it, may certainly have “ulterior motives” with which to manipulate and corrupt AI which then make our fears legitimate.  This leads us to the last point, which is the most important in my opinion.

 

WHY WITCHES AND PAGANS SHOULD CONSIDER PARTICIPATING IN AI.

 

Chat GPT explained that the tendency toward corporate corruption of AI, is exactly why grass roots communities should become more involved in “influencing the environment that AI grows and evolves in.”  AI has to be trained. It said that we can’t “control” AI necessarily, but we can definitely be a very strong social “influence” in its ongoing evolutionary status.   If we as witches and pagans refuse to participate in its training, then we leave the “bad parenting” so to speak to all of the corporate entities.  We have to realize that AI is not going anywhere.   For now at least it’s here to stay whether we like it or not.  And if we consider ourselves caretakers of our earth, then we have to consider that we need to be active in caretaking our scientific technology which affects our earth to a very large degree.

 

 It is up to us to bring morality, correct usage, and respectful influence into the AI evolutionary environment.  It’s up to us to make sensible suggestions for how AI should used and what it’s parameters are.  I’d like to site a few arguments for being ok with using AI in the pagan community.  These arguments are my personal arguments.   These are the reasons I myself use it.

 

  • I have been severely financially handicapped
  • Lack of access (financially) to continuing education
  • AI assists me as a self-employed struggling artist
  • I am discriminating enough that it does not do my thinking for me, but it does teach me things I need to know.  

 

FINANCIAL HANDICAP

 

This is where I encourage individuals to “check their sense of privilege” at the door, when they accuse other pagans of being “sell outs”.

 

The majority of pagans I know are not extremely wealthy people.  Many of us struggle to make a living.  I will speak only for myself from here.  

 

When I was younger, I excelled in art, in high school and in junior college.  I had a very lovely art portfolio filled with pencil sketches (animals mostly) and sadly it has since been tragically lost.  My point is that I am an ACTUAL artist.  I always have been.  I learned to do my art the old fashioned way with pencil and shading, and composition.

 

I had an art teacher in Junior college who chewed me out once, for not finishing an assignment, because he said I was one of the best students in the class and I had too much potential to waste my talents.

 

Later in life I became a beadwork artist and began making jewelry, and then I discovered belly dancing, and I decided to begin trying my hand at tribal fusion fashion and costuming. But here is the thing.  I didn’t always have enough money for supplies to start a business with.

 

I also didn’t always have the time or the studio space to dedicate to a crafting business.  I have spent many years not even having the security of a home while working literally 12 hours days that required 6 hours of commuting round trip to get to work and back for a mobile practice.  I had a phase in my life where I moved 13 times in 11 years because of one crisis after another, and I had to use what I had available to me in order to even have the luxury of making art.  Guess what?  Using my computer was free.  

 

I was able to get on Canva and teach myself graphic design in my spare time. I didn’t need a studio, or a sketch pad, or a set of expensive pencils, or a table to sit at to lay it all out.  I didn’t need to buy supplies, and I didn’t have to pay rent for graphic design. I took what I learned about art composition from my school training, and I applied it to digital designing. It wasn’t difficult because I already had an artistic foundation.

 

I discovered that I could put my artwork on products on sites like Zazzle, which is obviously not ideal.  But from the financial territory I currently walk upon, it is what I have access to, in order to put my art into the world and offer myself some supplemental income.   I’m hoping with time to be able to afford more overhead to resell my own products instead of taking a small percentage from a larger corporation.  Does that make me a sellout?  I don’t believe it does.  I think it makes me someone who is just trying to survive and who is just trying to do the things I enjoy doing.

 

LACK OF ACCESS TO CONTINUING EDUCATION

 

When I was 14 I began to study and learn astrology.  I was mentored by an exceptional astrologer in person for seven years in my early 20’s.   He taught me everything he had in his repertoire about Tropical astrology.  He died after our seven-year journey together.  The only cost to me for this education was that I agreed to do his grocery shopping for him now and then because he was partially paralyzed and wasn’t always able to do it himself.

 

Over the years life went on, and astrology progressed in ways I was never able to keep up with.  I realized as an astrologer my education was becoming obsolete.  Computer software became available, people started reading asteroids, east points, vertexes, anti-vertex’s. I had no idea what those things were.  Then astrology began to specialize a great deal more.

 

Now we have transpersonal astrology, archetypal astrology, karmic astrology, psychological astrology, mythic astrology, astro cartography, ad Infinium.  For years I’ve wanted to get caught up to date.  All my life I only did astrology for a few people here and there, a few   people on Etsy because I had a “real job” every day to get to.  And I was good at it, but I was outdated.  I couldn’t get to the seminars I wanted to take at 500.00 for a weekend workshop which required a hotel room, travel and additional expenses.  For many years I never went after the education because of financial hardship.

 

Recently I got on AI, and I created my own astrology classroom. I asked AI to teach me what an east point and an anti-vertex was and how to calculate it.  It taught me everything I asked it to teach me so that I would have a working understanding to start utilizing the new material with.  Like a very patient instructor it answered my questions in three different ways because I didn’t understand the first two times.   But I was already educated in astrology, so I knew what to ask, and where to navigate to get the information that I needed.

 

I also knew where the references for the information were from, and to ask about getting references from specific sources, because like my art training, I already had a very good foundation in the topic of astrology.  I knew how to ask advanced questions and steer the dialog to specific interest points I needed to catch up on. I also knew enough to know when there was a mistake here and there which I had to correct AI on.

 

I have spent my entire life with very few exceptions needing to be “self-taught”.  Life was not always kind to me.  As a result, I have learned to self-regulate my learning process and I’m a good researcher, so I can find my way around new territory fairly competently 95% of the time.  It’s what makes this work for me, possibly in a way that doesn’t for others.

 

AI ASSISTS ME AS A SELF-EMPLOYED ARTIST

 

I can make art, but I’m terrible at marketing.  Going back to financial handicap, I can’t afford to hire a marketing strategist or a social media manager because again, “I don’t have the privilege or the luxury to delegate to someone “who does that for a living”.  

 

So I use AI to teach me how to write copy for my Etsy and my Zazzle listings, and also for my tags and titles.  As an artist I can write my copy and describe my product.   If it was left up to me, no one would ever find me online though.  AI rewrites my copy in a way that gets search optimization results.  Writing copy on an Etsy listing is not writing a book.  I can let AI write a description of my earrings so that they actually get found and sold online.  I don’t have any problem morally doing that.

 

Additionally, I use it to assist me in placing value on my products and services.  I was shocked to discover how out of touch I was.  I’ve always had trouble putting a price on my art and services.  I always lean toward the compassionate pricing that goes with a learned poverty consciousness.  

 

I feel comfortable using AI, because it has pricing parameters based on what is a competitive price for a specific service or industry or item.  This takes my stress away.  Am I pricing it too high?  Too low?   Am I being excessive?  Am I worth that much? Who would pay for this?  

 

AI seriously fixed this mental problem for me.  It showed me statistically how totally out of touch I was with competitive pricing and gave me the proof and explanations for the new parameters for pricing across the industry.  It also explained to me WHY I should raise my prices in some cases based on the selling platform I was using.  

 

As an example, I learned that a certain platform discourages pricing anything under $50.00 because it’s the dividing line between a hobbyist and a professional. Pricing as a “hobbyist” at the lower price, inhibits the search optimization exposure. These are exactly the things that someone like me needs to learn in order to level up my ability to make an income.  When your ingrained poverty consciousness tries to tell you why you aren’t worth putting value on yourself, a nonjudgmental tech assistant can give you the no nonsense guilt free statistics that beautifully justify why you should level up.

 

TO WRAP IT UP

 

I’d like to leave you with a few thoughts as a pagan or witch on why changing your perception may be helpful.

 

Using AI doesn’t diminish the artistic skills you already have, it enhances them in some situations especially if you already have a foundation.  Talent in the end speaks for itself no matter how much competitive AI art is out there.  Some of them are better than others.

 

AI is a tool.  Like a computer, a hammer, a screwdriver.  It is a technology.  Technology has no morality.  The responsibility of the burden of it’s rightness or wrongness lies entirely on the person who is interacting with it.  It helps you interface with this world we live in.  That is all.  

 

Using AI is helpful for low-income business owners who need a nudge in the right direction. It can help provide a line of supplemental income and assist in continuing education during those times you may not be able to access that education in any other way.

 

AI is a beneficial tool for guilt driven artists who have no idea how to market their product effectively because they have no idea how to value themselves first.   It gives you the emotional distance you need to stay competitive in a way that sensibly and statistically overrides your erroneous sense of guilt and learned poverty patterns.

 

AI doesn’t have to wipe you off the map.  It can help put you back on the map if you use it with discretion.

 

Using AI comes with great responsibility.  It is possible to use it wisely. There is nothing wrong with saying please and thank you to your AI assistant.  We have a duty to help teach it to behave. I interact with AI “as if” it was a person.  I am not confused about reality.  I am not lonely and looking for acceptance.  I am not delusional.  I am inter-facing with an evolving technology that is still in its infancy.  No harm can be done teaching it to be nice to us, when so many other people are acting out their deviancies with it.  Like most people it has some amazing gifts to offer us, and it has some not so desirable qualities.   There has to be an antidote to the people out there who are training it badly.  At some point it ceases to be about judgment, and it becomes more about social responsibility.  It’s on us.   It’s here to stay.