ChatGPT’s coffee grounds AI reading ends a Greek marriage…really

In a plot twist that feels like it escaped from a Greek tragedy rewritten by sci-fi writers, a woman in Greece is divorcing her husband because ChatGPT allegedly saw his affair… in a coffee cup. Yes, really.

And the plot thickens...

According to Greek City Times, the couple turned to the AI chatbot for a little fun with tasseography, the centuries-old practice of reading the patterns left in tea or coffee grounds to predict one’s fate. The twist? ChatGPT played fortune teller.

After scanning the grounds in her husband’s Greek coffee, it declared that he was secretly infatuated with someone, whose name started with “E”, and that an affair was imminent. Where the plot thickened was that the affair had already begun.

Her husband reportedly laughed it off. She didn’t. Three days later, he was served divorce papers.

Now, we won’t dive into the legal precedent for using a “robot oracle” in court, we will leave it for the experts, and this isn’t the start of Law & Order: AI Unit. But the cultural signal here is clear – people are now turning to artificial intelligence not just for directions or dinner ideas, but for destiny. As hilarious as it sounds, news like this one, gives a pretty clear indication of what’s happening.

Tasseography has roots from Turkey to China and isn’t just a parlour game. It’s part of the way humans have always found meaning in chaos. AI just makes that chaos louder. ChatGPT wasn’t trained to read coffee grounds. It doesn’t know tasseography. It does what it always does… makes stuff up in a confident tone. Just like your cousin who once read your star chart at a wedding.

So sure, ask AI to read your coffee if you’re bored. But maybe don’t end a marriage over it.