AI-Powered Playing Cards Are the Biggest Tech Scam of 2025

Hello everyone. Pull up a chair because we’re about to dissect yet another grandiose Kickstarter pitch dressed in the usual trimmings of “innovation,” “human connection,” and “AI magic.” Apparently, we’ve all been waiting for AI-powered playing cards-because regular cardboard rectangles weren’t smugly modern enough without a QR code bolted onto them. Yes, truly, humanity has reached its enlightened apex.

The Premise: Cards Meet QR Codes Meet AI

The creator claims this is not just another deck of cards, oh no. It’s a “suite” of AI-powered decks. Because heaven forbid we call a spade a spade-no pun intended. Each beautifully printed cardboard card carries a QR code, which, when scanned, summons a so-called “artifact” from Anthropic’s Claude AI. Essentially, you’re buying an overpriced set of links to pre-baked prompts. Excuse me, “elegant artifacts.” At this rate, someone’s going to trademark the word “breathing” and charge us a subscription for it.

The Decks in Question

• The Infinite Adventure Deck: A choose-your-own-adventure simulator with 50 worlds ranging from Wonderland to Cyberpunk to Al Capone. Spoiler: it’s just text adventures, except now you shuffle some paper before scanning a code. Truly revolutionary.
• The Modern Divination Deck: A tarot-like gimmick that allegedly helps you “shape your future.” Nothing screams responsible decision making like letting a QR code priest decide if you should quit your job.
• The Mentor Deck: Coaching conversations with Claude. Because a language model trained on the entire internet is definitely the mentor figure you need to guide your pathetic little life decisions.

The Creator’s Angle

This whole project reeks of smug philosophy: “AI doesn’t dehumanize us, it amplifies our humanity!” Sure, and energy drink companies amplify your hydration while they sell you diabetes. Let’s be honest here: this isn’t about saving humanity from soulless productivity. It’s about finding the fanciest way possible to charge people for what amounts to playing with ChatGPT in fancy packaging.

The “holiday timing” and “early bird” discounts are classic Kickstarter bingo cards themselves. Be quick, jump on this deal before you realize you’ve just pledged money for the QR-code equivalent of buying a loot box. The only thing missing here is a battle pass and season skins for your deck of cards. I give it three months before someone suggests AI-enhanced Uno.

The Smoke and Mirrors of Innovation

Every attempt to market this is drenched in that warm, fuzzy “we’re building the future” rhetoric. But underneath the facade, it’s painfully clear: you’re just scanning barcodes for prompts someone else wrote. The tech isn’t groundbreaking-Claude and ChatGPT have been doing this for ages. The “innovation” is that you’re now paying for a play deck that serves as a glorified app launcher. But hey, if wrapping digital prompts in the ritual of card shuffling makes it “magic,” who am I to stop you? Just don’t pretend it’s an intellectual revolution.

Gaming Parallels: The DLC of Playing Cards

This entire stunt reeks of gaming industry tactics. Think of it like DLC for your brain. Instead of giving you the tool and letting you create, they’re packaging prompts as premium cards. It’s like paying for cheat codes that were already in the game. Oh, and yes, the beta testers get “special deals.” Of course they do. So long as you have the password from a previous pledge-a lovely nostalgic throwback to locked content disks of the 2000s. All that’s missing is a “Not available in your region” error.

Doctor’s Orders

Here’s my professional prescription: if you need genuine coaching, talk to a human. If you’re desperate for a tarot session, buy some actual tarot cards-cheaper and they don’t require a battery or internet connection. And if you think playing a cyberpunk adventure through a card deck with QR codes is the next big thing, perhaps I should prescribe less hype and more common sense. Self-medication with AI gimmicks is not covered by insurance, sadly.

Final Verdict

Is this project completely useless? No. Is it groundbreaking? Absolutely not. It’s a cleverly marketed, moderately fun novelty. It’s a conversation starter. It’s a stocking stuffer with QR codes. And that’s fine if you understand that you’re paying for packaging and presentation, not for true innovation. But if you believe this is the vanguard of amplifying humanity, then congratulations: you’ve officially been enchanted by well-branded smoke and mirrors.

And that, ladies and gentlemen, is entirely my opinion.

Source: The new Kickstarter is live, https://seths.blog/2025/08/the-new-kickstarter-is-live/