Are AI Tarot Reading Websites a Scam?

General
1

I’ve seen a bunch of “AI Tarot Reader” websites show up lately and I keep getting ads for them.

How is this any different from those websites that would just pick random cards and do the same thing? Except now people are asking you to PAY for this nonsense? It looks like such a scam to me I don’t see how anyone serious about the Tarot could be using something like this?

You’re not getting anything there. It’s just a bot picking random cards and generating text. We’ve had this for 10+ years and it’s always been a scam but now because they include “AI” suddenly it’s okay? Am I missing something here?

14 Likes
2

Deepen Your Tarot Practice Beyond the Cards
Finding meaningful tarot discussions and authentic guidance can be surprisingly difficult. Discover a space where your questions are welcomed and your intuitive growth is celebrated: Start Your Journey

3

:100: a scam.

Maybe a “scam” is a hard word as long as they’re being honest about it being AI, but I don’t see where the value comes from at all. You could basically ask ChatGPT to guess what’s going to happen and get the exact same result.

Anyone who has really worked with the Tarot will ignore them and spot the problem immediately.

The problem is in the long term it’s going to mislead a lot of people who think it’s actually doing something useful. People will quit on the Tarot with these useless generic messages before seeing anything from a real Tarot reader.

4

Absolute scam. Someone needs to do something about this because it is getting out of hand.

This kind of rubbish has ruined readings on marketplaces like Etsy and people are still there actually paying for readings like this.

5

Yep, I hate them. We have vulnerable people talking to AI (and we’ve all seen how badly that goes in the news lately). Some of these sites charge $30+ for ‘detailed’ readings with zero human connection or aftercare.

At least with human readers, there’s accountability and often genuine care for the person asking. These AI sites don’t follow up when someone gets a difficult Death or Tower reading, they just take the money and move on to the next customer.

6

They are the same thing as random generators and just as useless. Worse even, because they’re slower and make their own nonsense meanings to cards.

7

I poured my heart into an AI spread, then realized I never checked its privacy policy. Classic me oversharing with a robot.

Do they store questions and birth data?

8

Yes, anything you give to the AI is fair game, and they’ll store it and then use it to train the AI.

At least with a human reader, there’s an expectation of privacy. The AI could randomly decide to spill your secrets to the next person it talks to.

Not to mention, it could all get stored and sold by the marketing team behind the site.

9

I treat these tools more like a library assistant than some mystical oracle, just ask for sources. The decent ones will cite stuff like the Golden Dawn decans, Waite’s Pictorial Key, or Etteilla when you ask, and they’ll explain their reasoning. I also pay attention to where my questions end up. If the site says they won’t train on personal prompts and lets me export/delete my history, I’m more comfortable playing around with it.

I still don’t think it is anything like a real Tarot reading.

Maybe useful if you were practicing to read yourself but if it tells you a different meaning and you question it because you know the real meaning it will just turn around and go “Oh yes you were right let me do that again…”

10

If a site wants your money, ask how it shuffles. The transparent ones show you the random seed, timestamp, and deck settings so you can check the draw yourself, no stacked deck.

Look for sites that use an audited RNG or have a ‘provably fair’ system you can actually verify.

And even then it’s still just making stuff up. I don’t know why anyone would do this.

11

Legit online tarot readers usually get vetted-interviews and sample readings-and they build real client feedback over time.

AI sites skip that kind of human check but charge about the same. I’d rather book with someone who’s studied the craft and brings their own intuition.

12

What worries me about AI tarot sites is how they strip out the care and personal connection that make a reading matter. When I pull cards during the waning moon, there’s a gut-level link between my energy and the deck that an algorithm can’t copy. For me, tarot is the practice of sitting with the cards and letting the story unfold through my own read and life experience. I’m not looking for a bot to spit out text.

I tried a few of those sites just to see. They string words together fine, but there’s no real presence behind the reading. It feels like a handwritten note versus a form email. It also got all sorts of things wrong from simple card meanings to combinations it just completely ignored.

Maybe I’m old-school. I think tarot needs that human spark, especially when you’re looking for guidance. The sites don’t give me that.

13

I get where you’re coming from. Real readings and AI ones are completely different.

When I do readings, I’m using intuition and connecting with the person’s energy. An algorithm can’t do that. These AI sites are basically random card generators with good marketing. The whole point of Tarot is the reader picking up on energies, noticing patterns, and using their own experience to interpret the cards. Software can’t do any of that.

You’re right to be skeptical. Real Tarot needs that connection between the reader, the person getting the reading, and the cards. Save your money for actual readers.