There was great excitement as we flew into Cape Town airport recently for the annual Rugby Sevens tournament. Running through arrivals, my grandson stopped in his tracks and pointed at a public phone. “What is this?” he asked, looking at me quizzically. It raised a smile all round, and despite being digitally semi-literate, I did my best to explain.
The subject came up that evening, and my somewhat more tech-savvy son suggested I use ChatGPT for help. I’d heard about this amazing new artificial intelligence (AI) tool but had never tried it. He had the app on his phone, so I typed in the following question: “My grandson, seeing a public phone for the first time, asked me for an explanation as to what it was. Can you help me with an answer to his question?”
In seconds this is what emerged: “Of course! Here’s a simple explanation for your grandson: The thing you’re looking at is a payphone. It’s a special telephone that people used before everyone had their own phones. In the old days, if you needed to make a phone call when you were away from home, you could use one of these. You’d put coins in the slot and could then talk to someone just like you’d do on your own phone. People used public phones in an emergency, or when they were away from home and wanted to talk with their family or friends. It was a way to stay connected.
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