Traveling Efficiently Alone in the Age of ChatGPT
What happens when we no longer need to ask for help
We are traveling overseas. Neither of us speaks the language. We walk around the city. On the different monuments there are few signs in English. My partner keeps taking pictures, mostly of plaques so he can later figure out where we were.
I keep my phone in my bag. Years ago, I decided that I would stay present when traveling, and would not spend time documenting the trip, even at the expense of fewer memories.
***
But then comes lunch time. We get to a local restaurant we are eager to try out, but the menu is only posted in the local language on a board next to the cashier. Hungry and determined to eat there, I pull out my phone, snap three photos of the menu, upload them to ChatGPT and ask it to translate. Within seconds, I have a perfect English menu.
Just then, a young man also waiting to order approaches us. “Do you need help with the menu?” he asks. My partner, unaware I’d already solved our problem, eagerly says yes. They fall into conversation about the dishes. The young man is happy to help and practice his English, my partner delighted to talk with a local.
And me? I stand there scrolling through my perfectly translated menu while they chat.
***
I realize what happened. But by dinner time I am tempted again. I do not recognize the names of any of the wines on the restaurant’s menu. I am going to ask the waitress for advice. But she is off serving another table.
Within a minute I resort back to my phone, take a picture of the menu and type a question in ChatGPT to find out which wine is most similar to the one I prefer. Before I click, the waitress arrives. I ask her instead.
She walks away. I am curious and click on ChatGPT to find out the answer to the question I already typed. It is different from that of the waitress. And ChatGPT’s answer is right.
***
What will I do next time? Will I even ask a waiter or will I just do my own research on wine or any other menu item I don’t comprehend?
All these years ago, I convinced myself to stay away from the lure of the phone. Now the challenge intensifies. AI can be so helpful (at moments it may even seem indispensable). But the costs accumulate. We need each other less. We efficiently lose more and more human moments of interaction.
My advice is to turn off the phone. There’s an expectation that what constitutes a good vacation is the perfect meal or the perfect wine. But if you’re traveling for the experience or the adventure accept that sometimes you will be elated by a wonderful new taste and sometimes you’ll laugh years later about that horrible meal. But if that’s too frightening, use google translate and take a picture of the menu to translate. It layers in frustration of older technology.