Why I Deleted the AI (And Why I'm Not Bringing It Back)

When I started building this project, my first thought was: "Everything needs AI now. Let's wrap ChatGPT around the I Ching."

It seemed like the logical thing to do. I wanted to make the ancient text "easier" to understand. I wanted to give users instant answers.

I was wrong.

When I showed the first version to the community, one comment hit me harder than any bug report ever could. A user asked simply:

"

"Why throw mud into the water?"

That stopped me in my tracks.

The I Ching (The Book of Changes) is the "Water"—clear, deep, and distilled over thousands of years of human wisdom. Large Language Models (LLMs), for all their impressiveness, are the "Mud." They hallucinate. They ramble. They try to please you with generic, comfortable advice that sounds profound but means nothing.

AI removes the most important part of the ritual: The struggle.

When you get a hexagram like conflict or waiting, you aren't supposed to have a chatbot instantly tell you "It's going to be okay." You are supposed to sit with the text. You are supposed to read the cryptic lines from Richard Wilhelm and Carl Jung and let them interact with your own subconscious.

That moment of silence—where you try to bridge the gap between the ancient text and your modern problem—is where the magic happens. That is "Synchronicity."

If an AI fills that silence with generated noise, it kills the magic.

So, I made a decision that goes against every current tech trend: I deleted the AI.

I stripped it all out.

Now, when you cast a reading here, you get two things:

True Math: An algorithm that strictly mimics the probability of Yarrow Stalks (not just a 50/50 coin toss).

True Text: The classic Wilhelm/Baynes translation, exactly as it was meant to be read.

No bots. No "smart" interpretations. No hallucinations.

It might be harder to read. It might require more patience. But at least it is real.

I decided to keep the water clear.