AI Tech / news
AI Chatbots Take On Chinese Fortune-Telling as Ba Zi Readings Go Viral
Users across Chinese social media are feeding their birth details into AI models such as DeepSeek to have their ba zi, or Four Pillars of Destiny, interpreted — turning a traditional divination practice into a viral online trend.
The readings, known as ba zi or the Four Pillars of Destiny, require detailed birth information, which users are now entering into chatbots and asking the models to interpret. The queries span career moves, romantic compatibility and the timing of favourable periods.
On Xiaohongshu, the practice has become a viral trend, with users swapping prompts covering everything from relationship compatibility to career and fortune readings. Some ask whether they should change jobs; others want to know when a stretch of good fortune might arrive.
DeepSeek is among the AI models being used for the purpose. The conversations differ sharply from a general request for a chatbot's view on someone's career or relationship, since ba zi interpretation calls for a chart-based reading built from birth data.
The draw is partly practical. A traditional fortune-teller may require an appointment and a fee, and users must decide in advance what they want to ask. Telling a stranger about private worries or deep desires can also feel awkward.
An AI reading, by contrast, is available at any hour — whether after a difficult day at work or late at night — and can explain the same chart repeatedly without charging by the hour. Increasingly, the source notes, users do not even need to know what they are doing.