A recent study by Mark Blagrove and colleagues at Swansea University in the UK found that a AI The system offered dream interpretations that participants rated as “moderately accurate and capable of personal insight.” (105) Participants answered the Dream Interpretation Benefit Questionnaire (GDI), which was then compared with the responses of participants in previous live dream interpretation studies. therapy and groups. Using the ChatGPT system, participants in this study rated the interpretations lower on the “exploration-comprehension” subscale, which examines the levels of waking life importance highlighted by the interpretation. However, Blagrove et al. observe that “the mean score for the GDI item (“My dream was thoroughly explored by the ChatGPT interpretation”) on a scale of 1-9 was 7.90, indicating that the participants saw the process very deeply.” (111)
This study provides early evidence to support the development of more precisely calibrated AI tools for dream interpretation. But first, several concerns and limitations must be addressed.
What is missing in the interpretation of the AI dream
Blagrove and his colleagues noted the limitations of their study in its minimalistic input/output process, where participants simply input their dreams (plus evoke life details and associations) and receive the AI’s response. There was none of the extensive dialogue and exploration that usually occurs in live dream interpretations. But even if this process can be expanded with a series of interactive responses between the dreamer and the AI system, the main aspects of dream interpretation are still excluded. In a thoughtful review in Blagrove et al. Leslie Ellis emphasizes
“A sleep group or therapy session is about more than creating the right interpretation. The real work is holding an image long enough for the body to respond, hearing the phrase enter someone else’s ear, and noticing how it changes in someone else’s ear. feelings called out loud. It’s a back-and-forth that involves silence, breathing, and small adjustments that people make when they feel something is true. “
These qualities of the existence of embodiment and sympathy The sensitivity emphasized by Ellis seems even more out of scope optimistic AI vision.
To this I would add that an essential element of the best and most dynamic forms of vivid dream interpretation is a willingness, even a willingness, to speak and be frank with hard truths, critical insights, and taboo subjects. But current AI models such as ChatGPT are limited by a number of internal and invisible to the public. borders around controversial topics, meaning that attempts to use these systems to interpret the full range of human oneiric experience with dreams with certain types of content are not possible (e.g. sexracial/ethnic, political) and can generally lead to a subtle homogenization of all interpretations of AI. That’s where dreams become the most interesting and interesting, which current AI systems are prevented from answering.
The dream interpretation of AI can go from here
Several new opportunities for research on this topic, along with new potential for applying these insights to practical therapeutic settings, educationand public welfare. The greatest progress is likely to come from projects that follow the following paths:
- Experiment with AI systems other than ChatGPT, systems trained with high ethical standards and more adapted to dream interpretation purposes. More and more of these systems are becoming available and some of them may offer better resources for dream interpretation. Ultimately, the best systems are built on the basis of focused and systematic training with large sets of high-quality sleep data.
- Developing more detailed and nuanced instructions for AI systems, other than asking them “What does this dream mean?” or “A Freudian the interpretation of this dream?” Writing useful instructions for AI systems is a catch-21 phenomenonSt a medieval art form, a kind of linguistic magic that can have a huge differential effect on the results of research in this field.
- Broadening the interpretive lens. Like live dream groups, where the value is in hearing different perspectives from people, AI systems can also offer a wide range of possible interpretations. For example, the dream journaling program Elsewhere.to, which I help manage, currently offers ten different modes of interpretation, from Jungian and Lacanian to Biblical and Astrological. Giving people access to different perspectives can allow them to trust their own judgment and determine the best understanding of their dreams by considering different possibilities. It may even spark a new interest in learning more from real people who are experts in these approaches.
- Distinguish between situations in which people can benefit from live therapy and group dream interpretation and those in which they can benefit from AI interpretation. For example, a particularly rich and memorable dream, which Jung calls a “big dream,” would certainly benefit from deeper and more extensive exploration of vivid interpretation in therapy or a group. For other dreams that may not be worth the time or effort of live interpretation, but still contain valid and meaningful insights, an AI interpretation system can provide a useful approach.
Caution is certainly needed in this area, but so is a sense of reasonable hope. At their best, AI systems offer radically expanded access to increasingly high-quality methods for dream interpretation. This should lead to optimism among those who believe in the benefits of greater public awareness make a Wish. Rather than replacing therapists or groups, AI dream interpretation tools can augment their efforts, connect them to new resources, and point them in the direction of deeper meaning that ultimately only humans can pursue.
