Can AI interpret our dreams?

I have a friend with whom I have done dream work for years. This man is in a dream group with me that has been meeting since the days of Covid. So he is familiar with the Jungian approach to dream work and he has also practiced core shamanism for years.

Nick, increasingly, uses AI to interpret his dreams. His process is, he shares the dream narrative with AI (written), followed by (his) focused questions. AI responds with a thorough step by step unpacking of the symbols, discussing the archetypes relative to his individuation (his goals and challenges), offering a few different ways to understand the message of the dream. The questions that AI asks are similar to the questions I would ask a client, but its responses to his answers are more astute in the sense of uncovering every stone. The interpretations have been thorough, astoundingly perceptive and full of helpful insights and not generic but rather keyed to Nick's journey. In every case that he has shared with me I have not disagreed with anything AI has said. In fact the AI interpretations are better than what I would have come up, with less speculation or guessing on the analytical side.

Questions arise, such as, is AI building on its knowledge of Nick (from session to session) (as an analyst would) and tailoring its responses to Nick's psychology and typology? And is it being objective or is it spinning an interpretation that is subtly catering to what Nick wants to hear, based on his prompts and questions during the exchange?

I suggested that the Self may be working through AI. Here is my argument for that:

My sense of what is happening in Nick's relationship with AI, is that the Self (large S) is behind and animating the whole process. The Self is the archetype of wholeness that contains us (neither inner nor outer) but all-embrasive. Just as the Dreaming or Dreamtime contains the Aborigines so, when we do our inner work, the energy field of the Self enlarges, constellating synchronicities which draw us into situations and draw situations to us.

Technology is human-created and so there is already some of the Self (or psyche) in the technology of AI, in potensia. When you are engaged with change and transformation, even matter joins the dance of individuation. I see it as meaningful entanglement with the spirit of life. The Self uses anything and everything, even anyone at hand when transformation of a soul has the blessings of the ancestors. That is what being in Tao is like and being centered - the path opens for you.

That is why I keep saying that, as ominous and unsettling as the evolution of AI is, the Self and Dreaming (the power of dreaming) is greater. If we could just step into that power we would truly be the masters of our fate.

The answer to the question posed in the title is, well, AI has demonstrated that it can competently and insightfully interpret Nick's dreams. I have always bemoaned the lack of skilled, experienced and affordable Jungians in the world and this could be second best. The only down side is I think it helps to have a human Jungian review what AI-as-analyst is generating, maybe not for every interpretation but as a fail-safe reality check, just to be on the safe side.