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Computerized clairvoyance: psychics push back against AI-generated readings

“This journey isn’t just about algorithms or data,” an AI psychic named Urban Mystic recently told me. The chatbot, featuring an AI-generated profile photo of a smiling woman surrounded by palm trees, also said I will get married soon, that I have a pink aura and that I may have been an herbalist in a past life. “It’s about connecting on a soulful level,” the chatbot said. Urban Mystic is one of more than a dozen bots on the mobile app Your AI Psychic, which offers live, allegedly psychic readings via chat, vide…

By the Truvace desk2 min read1 sourceEvidence: Emerging · 42/100 — News report · 1 independent sourceJournalismTRV-2026-2310· cite & verify
Computerized clairvoyance: psychics push back against AI-generated readings

In brief

A Guardian reporter tried an AI psychic chatbot on the app Your AI Psychic, one of a growing number of apps, TikTok Live accounts and Etsy listings offering algorithmic fortune-telling. The app charges by coin, with packages from $9.99 to $99.99. Human psychics say AI readings passed off as human work have become rampant.

The story matters because the divination trade is unregulated and already tied to scams, so AI blurs the line between authentic and automated services. Practitioners fear dependence on chatbots for decisions and mental health harm. How the apps' models work and how many customers are lost to them remain unclear, since companies disclose little.

Main points

  1. Your AI Psychic offers more than a dozen bots and charges 4.06 coins per question, with packages from $9.99 (82 coins) to $99.99 (1,180 coins).
  2. Human psychics are adding 'no AI' clauses to ads and asking clients to post videos and photos to prove they are not bots.
  3. Coach Lauryn Kellett has shifted her teaching toward helping practitioners distinguish human-offered services from AI.
  4. Anthropologist Sally Applin says LLMs rely on statistical patterns and lack the cultural and personal context of human divination.
  5. The app's privacy policy makes no mention of AI and names no AI providers.

The problem

AI-generated readings are saturating the divination market, forcing human psychics to prove they are real and raising concerns that chatbot psychics could worsen mental health crises.

The rundown

Your AI Psychic provides chat, video and voice readings, palm reading, astrology chart analysis and horoscopes. AI-generated psychics are also appearing on TikTok Live, and human practitioners say AI horoscopes and spells are flooding Etsy.

Practitioners worry about dependence on AI for validation and decisions. Ahna Hendrix argues that leaning on AI weakens people's own internal guidance. Many human psychics on TikTok Live refuse health and finance questions, and studies have shown LLMs can amplify paranoia in users vulnerable to psychosis.

MystiCall, a rival platform, uses ElevenLabs for live voice conversations and OpenAI for post-call summaries. Its co-founder says it does not claim supernatural abilities, does not sell conversations and has disabled training on conversation data by partners. She says the pivot from a human phone service aimed to remove cost and availability barriers.

Sources

  1. JournalismThe Guardian2026-10-29

The debate