"Re-Tell the Fortune so I Can Believe It": How Chinese User Communities Engage with and Interpret GenAI-based Fortune-Telling

TL;DR

This study explores how Chinese communities engage with GenAI for fortune-telling, revealing their motivations, community dynamics, and perceptions of AI as a modern digital oracle.

Contribution

It provides qualitative insights into the cultural adaptation of traditional divination practices through GenAI and highlights community interactions and user perceptions.

Findings

Users seek psychological comfort from GenAI fortune-telling.

Community discussions reinforce shared interpretations.

GenAI is valued for accessibility but seen as lacking spiritual mystique.

Abstract

People traditionally divine the future by interpreting natural phenomena as oracular signals, especially in societies adhering to traditional beliefs like China. With the advent of Generative AI (GenAI), people gain access to new ways of probing digital oracles for predicting the future. To understand how people use and interpret GenAI for divination in China, we interviewed 22 participants who habitually use GenAI platforms for fortune-telling, complemented by a three-week digital ethnography with 1,842 community posts. Qualitative analysis showed that people who seek psychological comfort are particularly receptive to GenAI-based decision-making. Users valued GenAI's accessibility, convenience, and efficiency while perceiving its lack of spiritual mystique. We observed community dynamics forming around GenAI tools, where users reinforce interpretations by sharing and discussing with each other, repeating queries until responses align with expectations. Our work uncovers how AI technologies change the way people and communities engage in traditional cultural practices while yearning for the same goals.