00:04One place in Seoul is changing how Korea looks at spirits and is cutting through some of the
00:09usual angst with AI. It was a bit scary, so it felt a little overwhelming. When you walk past
00:18there, there are a lot of places like shaman's houses. I felt a bit hesitant to go inside,
00:24but as I was passing by, I saw something that says AI, which made me curious.
00:30In traditional Korean culture, spirits abound everywhere, and one way to commune with them
00:35is through spirit mediums, mainly called mudang. Spirit mediums are a very old part of Korean
00:43culture, at times serving as a cultural rallying point, while others look down on and distrusted.
00:51A new way to connect spiritually was something the owner considered when coming up with his
00:55shop, Vinayda.
00:59In business, you need to do something new to find a blue ocean. We thought this could work,
01:04set the concept, and since a lot of people at other companies were interested in this
01:08area, that's what helped us move ahead.
01:13Some find in-the-flesh spiritual mediums to be unnerving, with all the colors, sounds and
01:18rights involved. But at Vinayda, just type out your birth date, look into a robotic face,
01:23and relay your concerns into a mic. And for some, that experience is not too far from the
01:30real thing.
01:33I think the face reading was more interesting for me. It explained this and that, depending
01:38on what my face looked like. It also looked at things like my moles, and since I was hearing
01:44similar interpretations, I found that even more intriguing.
01:48With a facial scan, a few electronic brush strokes, and a QR-encoded talisman card, Inquisitive
01:54can find out what their saju, or pillars of fate, have in store for them.
01:59And it's not just Koreans making up the fortune curious. Foreigners can also have their fortunes
02:05told in Chinese, Japanese, or English.
02:24In Seoul, with robot eyes scanning your beauty marks and blemishes, you're just one AI diviner
02:30away from finding out your future, in a space where a novel experience meets age-old tradition.
02:36Eason Pun and Tim Smith for Taiwan Plus.
