“Table Mountain standing tall, like a jol; she’s seen it all.”
A South African asked Chatgpt to write a poem about Cape Town using local slang, much to the amusement of many locals.
Cape Town, South Africa (28 November 2024) — It’s a curious time to be alive. Robots are real and posing with celebrities, no one knows when a selection of our species might move to Mars and Artificial Intelligence is writing poems about parts of South Africa—yes, Chatgpt is now a local poet. Indeed, this chapter of the history books is certainly going to be one where fact proved stranger than fiction.
While we, as a team of very human writers, still prefer poetry written by other very human writers, Chatgpt made a good enough go to get local nods of approval, a few thousand giggles, and even a resounding acknowledgement that this strain of AI can come to the braai (read: it’s poem earned some pretty serious favour). Chatgpt’s journey as a poet with Cape Town as its muse began when the AI was prompted by TikTok user, ‘Garfield’ to write a poem about Cape Town using South African slang.
To the surprise of many, what the AI churned out wasn’t half-bad (though, the South African accent delivering the poetry session certainly helped the mood).
Here’s a taste of what to expect:
“Table Mountain standing tall, like a jol she’s seen it all”—Chatgpt.
Now, before English teachers everywhere have our heads, we enjoyed the poem from the perspective of its giggle-worthy nature, coherent sentences and slang slip-ins. The poem, ‘Lekker Cape Town Vibes’ certainly won’t be up for a Pulitzer Prize any time soon, but hey, we won’t put it past Elon Musk to create a similar prize for robots.
Without further hesitation, we bring you, ‘Lekker Cape Town Vibes’:
@garfieldzar 10/10 poem #chatgpt #southafricatiktok #fyp ♬ original sound – Garfield
by 