Can AI teach us anything about our subconscious? I offered up my dreams to find out | Tara Kenny

AI chatbots have a tendency to exaggerate, but their verbose nature feels well-suited to the highly associative task of dream analysis

Some say that talking about your dreams is boring, but personally I think otherworldly nocturnal escapades provide far richer fodder for small talk than the footy season or this unseasonal weather. Sadly, not everyone agrees. That's why, when I hear about an AI dream interpretation app, I'm seduced by the potential for a captive, preternaturally intelligent assistant to help me decipher the more baffling corners of my psyche.

AI chatbots such as ChatGPT have a well-known tendency to riff and exaggerate with alarming confidence, but their verbose nature feels well-suited to the free form and highly associative task of dream analysis. Admittedly, trading little understood fragments of our slumbering minds to a tech startup in return for spiritual guidance sounds like the foreboding premise of a terrifying sci-fi horror movie. But the app's fine print promises that dreams are stored safely and privately". Who am I to let an intuitive aversion to welcoming the machine into the last private vestiges of my consciousness get in the way of a good story?