After getting the warm-and-fuzzies thinking how lovely that children may still like to talk to Santa on a telephone, I realised how good of Telstra Australia to enabled all its 14,500 payphones nationwide to give free calls to the North Pole for a magical conversation with Santa Claus. Known elsewhere as St. Nicholas, Kris Kringle, Père Noël, Sinterklaas…

Quote “Find the closest payphone by searching ‘Telstra Payphone on Google Maps’, and have a chat with Father Christmas.” Chances are you will find a public phone at your local shopping centre.

It will be fun for the little ones but it will not be a true heart-to-heart chat.

This is where the stylus scratches across my virtual vinyl record.

Why? Because—“This year, Santa has another helper to make the conversation as natural as an everyday conversation: Google Cloud’s set of generative AI solutions.”

Details here:
https://blog.google/intl/en-au/products/google-businesses/generative-ai-santas-new-little-helper-bringing-christmas-cheer-to-australia/

An imitation human at this time of year! I think I’ll find a real bloke in the shopping centre, sitting on a gold papier maché throne, sweating inside a red velvet Santa suit. Might even slip him an eggnog and some gingerbread during interval.

Can you be warmed by the voice or a twinkle in an AI’s eye?

They don’t even have proper eyes.

Happy holidays,
Enjoy a real cool Yule!
❤ Gretchen Bernet-Ward 2023