Aquarius, Artificial Intelligence, and Sora
A look into AI and the astrological moment


Artificial Intelligence and its astounding capabilities made a big splash at the end of 2022. The newly launched chatGPT took the world by storm and left those who read its impressive responses to various questions in awe. This free and experimental service provided by OpenAI caught everyone off guard. The strange name GPT was on everyone's lips, even though they weren't exactly sure what it was all about. The "chat" part is obvious. Conversation. But GPT, not so much. The acronym GPT stands for Generative Pre-Trained Transformer. Undoubtedly, it's a set of technical concepts too scientific and esoteric for the average internet user. It simply means an automaton that has been trained to respond conversationally to a human. And let's let this definition sink in - "...respond conversationally to a human...".
What will be referred to in the future as the AI Boom or AI Spring – and may already be now – has profound impacts on current society. It is pervasively affecting various human domains such as Philosophy, Religion, Economics, etc. Before the advent of chatGPT, it was already extraordinary, and undoubtedly a feat of immense proportions, to have almost easy and immediate access to an endless repository of information covering all possible subjects, through the search engine that Google created and widely made available to the world. Google's business model, based on personalized advertising to users generated from the information they share with the service, made Google a colossal company. But now, with the lightning success of chatGPT, "Goliath" feels the imminent danger of its own extinction. Something unthinkable until then - certainly not so fast. The proposal of AI changes the rules of the game. The consumer of information provided by the internet now has another service to use as an alternative to what they didn't even have to choose, so deeply ingrained in the digital experience. "Google it"... With the advent of AI in chat format, it is no longer necessary to know something about the subject being searched for, let alone build knowledge in a particular area of knowledge by compiling information scattered across multiple sites presented by the search service. This is always associated with a subliminal layer of advertising – when one is unaware of a company's product, the product is us. An "intelligent" entity, which seems to know everything, delivers that information already in the form of knowledge, written in any language, in any literary format, as if we had just conversed with the most cultured and intelligent human being on this planet. Not only does this knowledge come in a response, but it is also possible to have a coherent - human-like - conversation on the same subject, in which AI expands and deepens the spectrum of the conversation topic. Simply extraordinary!
Since the public release of chatGPT, complex images have quickly been created from any description emanating from the human imagination. The applications of this innovative tool have multiplied, aiding in creative tasks with useful automations that would only be possible by hiring experienced, talented, and accredited professionals in the market, at a high price. Thus, with an affordable subscription fee, or often bundled with the product itself, content creators gained access to these tools that abbreviate the time spent and allow them to achieve a level of quality that approaches the result of specialized and professional services. The translation market and a part of the consultancy profession have been severely affected, and the first fears about the real impacts on the sensitive social and economic balance of current society are beginning to emerge. AI could indeed frighteningly replace a set of professions, throwing thousands or even millions of people into unemployment. And this is where it becomes a political challenge. Companies and organizations involved in AI development, also surprised by the rapid adoption of the technology, will have to quickly reformulate the technology and make it marketable and, also, controllable. The European Union has already stated that it is necessary to regulate AI, for example. The first legal processes have begun because, after all, AI is trained. And trained with what? With content, materials, techniques, and everything else that was previously created by humans and that have the right to be compensated for the abusive use of the intellectual property of what they created, and which is freely used to train and improve the performance of AI. This was a point that was not well guarded by the organizations responsible for AI and will certainly generate much controversy.
In recent days, what was already predicted that technology could achieve has been launched: Sora. Sora is an AI model developed by OpenAI – the same organization that created chatGPT – that can create realistic scenes from textual instructions. This means that the AI model is being trained to produce video from training that allows it to understand and simulate the physical world in motion. The published results are dazzling. Although not yet available for widespread use at this stage, the evolution after a year in which the first experiments with video generation from text were published is impressive. For the observer who knows that the video was created by AI, there are details that give it away – the famous problem of hands and other errors that AI has not yet resolved and that clearly defy reality. But for those who don't know that the film is generated by AI, they may not be as attentive the first time they see it. With fantastical objects, something like what is observed in Disney animation films or any other 3D animation studio, the technology may not cause as much astonishment. However, there is the significant difference that the resulting animation did not involve the intervention of a human using sophisticated 3D modeling software. Or it is no longer necessary to hire on-location video capture services, with all the logistical costs involved. But the most impressive thing is the creation of extras or even virtual actors whose characteristics are identical to those of a human captured on film. This technology is not new. There is controversy over the use of "deep learning" to create avatars with differences from real human characteristics. The differences from real people are almost questionable or even imperceptible, to the point of simulating real human beings, embodying them in various circumstances. At this moment, a textual description may be enough to create the same, in just a few minutes. Such technology does not seem so far from becoming a reality, given the evolution demonstrated in the last year.
And how does all this relate to Aquarius, the astrological sign?
As of the present date, February 18, 2024, Venus has just entered Aquarius, just a few days after Mars entered this same sign. Pluto is in the first degree of Aquarius. With this personal planet, which is archetypally related to what attracts us, therefore associated with love, beauty, and harmony, there are now five planets positioned in Aquarius, according to modern and tropical astrology. Therefore: Sun, Mercury, Venus, Mars, and Pluto. If we can attribute a single word meaning to each of the signs, we can have, respectively: consciousness, communication, love, action, and transformation. As a sign, Aquarius is characterized by freedom, innovation, associativeness, revolution, independence, and collective responsibility. The resonance in the Aquarian theme assumes therefore significant importance given the concentration of planetary archetypes in this sign. Pluto, the only transpersonal planet of the group, will remain in Aquarius for a substantially longer time and will mark several social transformations over the next 20 years, as observed by correlation in previous planetary cycles regarding civilizational history. It is relevant to note the synchronicity that occurred when chatGPT was launched when Pluto approached Aquarius, and how much this technology lost part of its initial enthusiasm when Pluto began its apparent retrograde motion and returned to Capricorn for about 7 months. During that period, concerns and signs of social alarm and concerns were more audible, and organizations linked to AI found themselves faced with negative reactions to the free provision of the service. In January 2024, Pluto re-enters Aquarius and there seems to be a new enthusiasm – and very possibly new social threats – regarding the widespread use of AI. And now, in these days, this new aspect of technology arrives: the creation of video from text. New shockwaves hit society, and the wonder at the creation of movie-like images from a textual description, completely automated, leaves humans incredulous again with the magnificence of digital technology.
It is certain that the beauty of the examples shown by OpenAI (present on https://openai.com/sora) suggest a Venusian interpretation, of beauty and admiration, which consequently attracts our attention. But astrologically there is something more here. Cinema - and audiovisual arts in general - are a theme frequently associated with Neptune which, according to certain lines of astrological reasoning, functions as a higher octave of Venus. Neptune has been in the sign of Pisces for many years and will remain there until 2025. Neptune, which is a social trans social planet, acquires a broad archetypal meaning and civilizational scope, which is consolidated as a generational dimension. Its translational cycle around the Sun is 165 years, and it spends about 14 years in each sign. Its positioning in Pisces will denote that the Neptunian astrological character that relates to psychology, imagination, collective consciousness, idealisms, empathy, dreams, and illusions – among many others – is precisely located in the sign that is most familiar to it, as if in perfect affinity with its archetypal nature. Cinema and the illusions that the screen creates in our perception of reality are thus identifiable in the meanings of the sign Pisces and also of Neptune. And how does the archetype of Neptune relate to the concentration of planets in Aquarius? Saturn, considered the ruler in Traditional Astrology of Aquarius, is transiting the sign of Pisces. The bridge of concepts can be established by this connection, in which the meaning of the sign of Pisces is associated with the archetypes in Aquarius, whose social and mental structure is nuanced with the creation of a structured imaginary world of the signifiers positioned in Pisces. Saturn, as an archetype, realizes and constructs a conceptual order supported by secure foundations. This analysis will be more complete if the ruler of Modern Astrology is observed. Uranus transits Taurus, a sign ruled by Venus (the last of the planets to enter Aquarius), and just as seen for Saturn, Uranus interferes in the interpretation with the meanings of the planets in Aquarius. Uranus' nature in Taurus nuances all this meaning we seek to establish. Not being a sign characterized by speed or immediacy of action - characteristics that are often associated with Uranus - nevertheless, the element of surprise can be identified in the way this AI development may appear as a true earthquake in Hollywood or any other studio or organization dedicated to audiovisuals that depend on the talent of actors to play character roles in the film industry, television series, or others. Even digital content producers are affected or will be the most affected in the initial phase as the technology only allows for satisfactory results. Accentuated by the expansiveness of the jovian archetype, as Jupiter is also in Taurus, the pair of Saturn in societal matters in which individuals are involved, the impact felt by this sudden unfolding of events may be much broader than initially believed.
The "rapid" movement of the planets (Sun and Moon are considered planets in the astrological context for terminological convenience) that are considered personal – from the Sun to Mars – will cause this interpretation to remain for a relatively short time. On March 23, when Mars enters the sign of Pisces, only Pluto will remain in Aquarius. However, the effects produced by AI on society will persist and evolve, like all civilizational matters. It is possible that around mid-2025 we may witness a new sudden evolution of these factors when Saturn and Neptune will jointly exit the sign of Pisces and enter Aries, and simultaneously Uranus will transit to Gemini. These three planets will be in sextile (an aspect that is traditionally positive) and entering signs of compatible elements, but Jupiter will also be entering Cancer and in this case making a square to the Saturn-Neptune pair, therefore potentially signifying conflict and challenges regarding factors such as the expansion of affairs and the laws that govern us. Jupiter's entry into the sign characterized by domestic and family affairs may give a hint that this conflict may manifest in that sphere. The distant Pluto will continue its slow march through Aquarius and will highlight the areas in society that need to transform and evolve forcibly. Some months after the simultaneous entries, Uranus, now in Gemini, will trine Pluto. Sudden developments in technology and communications are expected to occur, mediated in sextile – therefore in what may represent a mid-point – by the conjunction Saturn-Neptune in direct and retrograde movements between the signs of Pisces and Aries. An interesting - and full of surprises - year of 2025 is anticipated, therefore!
P.S.: This text was entirely written without the use of AI!