AI Fortune-Teller: Juxtaposing Shaman and AI to Reveal Human Agency in the Age of AI

2026-03-24

AI Summary

This study investigates the mechanisms underlying human trust in advice sources in the AI era, critically examining the assumed roles of explainability and accuracy in shaping acceptance. Through a deceptive experiment, career guidance ostensibly generated by AI was in fact derived from Korean shamanic (mudang) divination; participants’ interactions were captured via video recordings and supplemented with in-depth interviews. This work uniquely juxtaposes shamanic consultation with AI interaction, integrating perspectives from human-computer interaction and cultural anthropology. Findings reveal that even after learning the advice originated from shamans rather than AI, participants’ attitudes remained largely unchanged, suggesting that perceived resonance of content outweighs the technical provenance of the source. These results challenge technocentric assumptions about AI cognition and underscore the enduring influence of cultural and non-rational factors in human decision-making.

Technology Category

• Humans and AI: Learning Human Values and Preferences
• Philosophy and Ethics of AI: Safety, Robustness & Trustworthiness
• Cognitive Modeling & Cognitive Systems: Social Cognition And Interaction

Application Category

• Economics, Online Markets and Human Computation: Trust and reliance of crowd workers and data experts on GenAI
• User Modeling, Personalization and Recommendation: Accountability, Transparency, and Ethics for personalization
• Responsible Web: Machine-in-the-loop, human agency and autonomy

Abstract

This speculative video piece showcases participants interacting with a career counseling AI agent, unaware that the responses were actually derived from the fortunetelling of a mudang (a Korean traditional shaman). Our work captures this deception and documents participants' reactions, showcasing shifts in their initial perceptions of the agent's advice following the reveal. Notably, even after learning that the advice came from a mudang rather than an AI, participants did not change their initial attitudes toward the advice they received. This raises questions about the perceived importance of AI's explainability and accuracy. By juxtaposing scientific and pre-scientific approaches, we aim to provoke discussions on human agency in the age of AI. We argue that, regardless of AI's advancements, we continue to navigate life in fundamentally human ways -- wonderfully messy and uncertain.

Problem

• human agency
• AI explainability
• perceived accuracy
• shamanism
• artificial intelligence

Innovation

• speculative design
• human agency
• AI explainability
• deceptive interaction
• shamanic AI