捉鬼是一项技术密集型活动。当艾米·韦恩和贾拉德·卡廷调查闹鬼地点时，他们携带的是自己设计的软件，例如一款将手机传感器的信号分配给数据库中不同单词的应用程序。在ChatGPT时代，这对捉鬼搭档正在探索人工智能领域。他们将自己最新的一项发明——一款名为GhostTube Seer的应用程序——描述为“世界上第一款AI捉鬼工具”。
Ghost hunting is a tech-heavy pursuit. When Amy Waine and Jarrad Cutting investigate haunted locations, they’re loaded up with software of their own design, such as an app that assigns signals from a phone’s sensors to different words in a database. In the age of ChatGPT, the ghost-hunting pair is probing the world of AI. They describe one of their latest inventions, an app called GhostTube Seer, as “the world’s first AI Ghost Hunting tool”.
在超自然现象调查人员手中，科学工具如电磁场仪（用于检测电磁场）被重新用于识别他们认为表明超自然活动的变化和异常。Seer在很多方面只是这种做法的扩展，另一种扫描空房间并相信那里可能有东西的方式。根据其Google Play商店页面显示，这款需要付费月度订阅的应用程序拥有超过100万次下载量。
In the hands of paranormal investigators, scientific tools like EMF meters (used to detect electromagnetic fields) are repurposed to identify changes and anomalies that they believe indicate supernatural activity. Seer is, in many ways, simply an expansion of that practice, another way to scan an empty room and believe that something may be there. The app, which requires a paid monthly subscription, has more than 1m downloads, according to its Google Play store listing.
但在捉鬼界的其他人看来，AI是不受欢迎的存在。自2022年ChatGPT发布以来，AI生成的鬼故事和超自然图像充斥着网络空间，以至于像r/Nosleep子版块这样原本用于恐怖故事的热门论坛，都实施了针对AI生成材料的严格政策。
But for others in the ghost hunting world, AI is an unwelcome presence. Since the release of ChatGPT in 2022, AI-generated ghost stories and images of the supernatural have flooded online spaces, so much so that popular forums like the r/Nosleep subreddit, meant for scary stories, have implemented a strict policy against AI-generated material.
韦恩和卡廷声称，他们的应用程序可以利用手机内置磁强计的信号，识别其中的单词和短语，然后将其输入图像生成器，从而生成描绘超自然现象的图像。
Waine and Cutting claim their app can generate images depicting the supernatural, using signals from a phone’s built-in magnetometer, identifying words and phrases in those signals, and then running them through an image generator.
同好们可以将生成的图片发布到动态中，并评论其他用户的图片。自2023年发布以来，Seer已成为他们屏幕工作的常规部分。在其Amy’s Crypt YouTube频道的一段最新视频中，这对搭档在温彻斯特神秘屋精心挑选的地点坐下，同时运行GhostTube Seer。
Fellow paranormal enthusiasts can post the images they generate to a feed and comment on other users’ pictures. Since its release in 2023, Seer has become a regular part of their onscreen work. In a recent video on their Amy’s Crypt YouTube channel, the pair sat in a carefully selected location in the Winchester Mystery House while running GhostTube Seer.
“你能给我们展示一下这个房间以前的样子吗？” Cutting问道。该应用生成了一幅抽象的木墙和金色窗帘的组合，二人认为这可能是这座住宅的其中一间卧室。Seer在运行时还生成了人类和动物的图像：一位正在阅读的女子、另一位披着黑色披肩的女子，以及一群飞翔的白鸟。二人将每幅图像都解读为与这座住宅的历史有关。
“Can you show us what used to go on in this room?”Cutting asked. The app generated an abstract compilation of wooden walls and golden curtains that the pair suggested could be one of the home’s bedrooms. Seer also generated images of humans and animals while running: a woman reading, another woman with a black shawl, and a flock of white birds flying. Each was interpreted by the pair to have some relevance to the history of the home.
对鬼魂的追寻历来相对小众且个人化，即便在2000年代初《鬼猎人》等电视节目引发兴趣热潮之后也是如此。但近年来情况已改变。鬼故事和目击事件一旦上网，就可能成为像ChatGPT或Google Gemini等大型语言模型的训练材料，和其他任何内容一样。
The pursuit of ghosts has historically been relatively niche and personal, even after early 2000s TV shows like Ghost Hunters prompted a surge of interest in the hobby. That’s changed in recent years. Ghost stories and sightings, once they find their way online, can become training material for large language models like ChatGPT or Google Gemini, just like any other content.
“新技术一直是超自然历史的一部分，”超自然研究员兼作者、日常工作在科技行业的Alex Matsuo说。托马斯·爱迪生尝试用“灵魂电话”与死者联系，就是一个早期例子，其野心与今天的AI驱动“死亡机器人”并无太大差别。19世纪至20世纪初热议的灵魂摄影现象，其历史也与新摄影技术的进步相呼应。
New technologies have always been a part of paranormal history, says Alex Matsuo, a paranormal researcher and author whose day job is in the technology industry. Thomas Edison’s attempt at a “spirit phone” to contact the dead is an early example, one with an ambition not dissimilar to today’s AI-powered “deathbots”. The history of spirit photographs, a hotly debated phenomenon of the 19th and early 20th century, parallels advances in new photography techniques.
然而，一些超自然爱好者担心生成式AI不仅是又一种可供玩耍的新技术，而是威胁到他们所做之事的灵魂。Matsuo说：“我并不惊讶AI已经被鬼猎社区的许多人接受。”
Some paranormal enthusiasts, though, are concerned that generative AI is more than just another new technology to play with and instead threatens the soul of what they do. “I’m not surprised that AI has been embraced by a lot of people in the ghost hunting community,” said Matsuo.
GhostTube Seer首次发布时，她亲自尝试过。她对迄今为止看到的内容持怀疑态度。
When GhostTube Seer was first released, she tried it out. She is skeptical of what she’s seen so far.
松尾表示：“每当有人推出使用AI的鬼魂狩猎工具时，我一直有一个大问题：‘好吧，如果你在使用AI，你在使用某种大型语言模型，你用什么数据来训练它，以[确定]什么是鬼魂？’”她还指出，存在伦理问题：生成式图像工具是否使用受版权保护的艺术作品来创造自己的幽灵？鬼魂狩猎聊天机器人是否会将用户引入他们自己的“超自然回声室”？
“Any time someone’s coming out with a ghost hunting tool using AI, my big question has always been: ‘OK if you’re using AI, you’re using some sort of large language model, what data are you training it on to [determine] what’s a ghost?’”Matsuo said. She also noted that there are ethical concerns: is a generative image tool using copyrighted art to create its own spectres? Are ghost hunting chatbots sending users into their own “paranormal echo chambers”?
其他超自然爱好者正在拥抱所谓的“机器中的幽灵”。Seer并非唯一专为鬼魂猎人设计的生成式AI应用。肖恩·奥斯汀是一名超自然调查员，曾出现在旅游频道关于鬼魂狩猎的系列节目中，他推出了一款名为“灵魂电话创新”的应用，该应用使用“先进AI”分析音频信号以检测EVP——电子语音现象——这是鬼魂狩猎的常用手段。松尾认为，寻找鬼魂的核心应保持深刻的人性。
Other paranormal enthusiasts are embracing the proverbial ghost in the machine. Seer isn’t the only generative AI app designed for ghost hunters. Sean Austin, a paranormal investigator who was featured on a Travel Channel series about ghost hunting, launched an app called Spirit Phone Innovations that uses “advanced AI” to analyze audio signals to detect EVP – electronic voice phenomena – a mainstay of ghost hunting. Matsuo believes the heart of looking for ghosts should remain deeply human.
“我们很多人进入鬼魂狩猎世界，是因为经历过某种创伤或悲伤，”她说。对许多人来说，鬼魂狩猎是一种处理失去的方式，她说。“每个人都在寻找下一个伟大的事物，它可能会让我们对未知有所了解，或验证鬼魂的存在。”随着美国各地数据中心的快速建设，AI的物理足迹不断扩大，鬼魂出没的地点同样面临着改变的威胁。宾夕法尼亚州一家曾经的精神病院，后来成为备受喜爱的鬼屋，于2025年底被卖给一家数据中心开发商，准备拆除。然而，当地居民联合起来，并在5月成功阻止了这一计划。
“A lot of us come into the ghost hunting world because we’ve gone through some trauma or grief,” she said. Ghost hunting is, for many, a form of processing loss, she said. “Everyone’s trying to find the next big thing that could give us an answer into the unknown or validating the existence of ghosts.”As AI’s physical footprint expands with the rapid construction of datacenters across the US, ghostly locations are likewise facing the threat of change. A former asylum in Pennsylvania that became a beloved haunted house was sold to a datacenter developer in late 2025 to be torn down. However, local residents banded together and successfully blocked it in May.