Software developer John Temple on using AI to interpret dreams

Point Sur lighthouse and its supporting lightstation buildings, now a California State Historic Park, stand atop a dramatic volcanic rock just off-shore in Big Sur, California. This historic aid-to-navigation has a modern aero-beacon which still guides ships along the treacherous Central California Coast. Source: Point Sur Lighthouse. Author: Jay Huang. Licensed under CC-BY-2.0.

“It’s going to behoove us to really pay attention to how [the use of artificial intelligence for dream interpretation] develops and differentiate between what is the strict pattern recognition component, which computers are just going to be better at than us, and that other component that is more psyche, more creative, the more soul side. That, in my opinion, is where healing comes from. I don’t think that working extensively with an AI model on dream interpretation gives you the kind of healing that a therapeutic relationship does. A therapeutic relationship seems like it’s about remodeling or adapting the way you relate to another human in better and more holistic ways.

“It’s my hope that it becomes clearer and clearer to us the value of humans’ ability, and certain humans’ ability, to do that kind of thing. But in the meantime, my perspective is that there are, for example in the U.S., only 6,000 to 9,000 Jungian-trained analysts in a population of 300 million. There just aren’t enough. My thought is, I want to get more people engaged with dreams, with these ideas, with the unconscious.”

— excerpted from Stewart, D., Marchiano, L., & Lee, J. (2024, June 20). John Temple: Does AI dream interpretation really work? – This Jungian Life [Streaming]. https://thisjungianlife.com/ai-dream-interpretation/