A true story from the AI age
On the machine, it said in big writing and with many illustrations, “Print photos from your Instagram.” There were no instructions, so I thought maybe the thing wanted cash first, and threw two 50 cent coins in the slot. It readily showed that now I had a credit of 1 €. No instructions on how to proceed, though.
Eventually, I got tired of waiting for nothing and pressed the red button to at least get my money back. No such luck!
I looked around for someone who looked like a competent contact person. No such luck, of course. There are no contact persons in the machine age.
Then I thought I heard some click and turned my attention back to the machine. There was, lo and behold, something in the output slot! I pulled it out and saw, much to my amazement, the two photos shown above.
I have no idea who these people are.
It’s like the machine communicated, after all, saying something like “Gotcha! I’ll keep your money – would never dream of giving anything back! – but you get something in return. Now don’t you complain!”
Lesson learned: Never trust vending machines pretending to be Instagram!
– Leonard Blumfeld (© 2023)
