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Saturday, February 08, 2025

Souvenir Du

 


I saw this wood carving at the local Antique Mall today and it peaked my curiosity. At first I thought it was a souvenir of a place called "Du." So I asked ChatGPT and it explained to me that "Souvenir Du" is French for "Memory of" or "Souvenir from."  So I took a photo and shared it with ChatGPT and it suggested that this carving was very likely from Haiti because they speak French in Haiti (or a Creole version of French). 

So I bought the carving because it just seemed odd that someone would carve the words "Souvenir of" and not of where. I conjectured that the artist started carving the words and then realized they ran out of room for the "of where." 

When I got home I decided to ask Gemini about the carving. And low and behold, Gemini says the carving is from an African country called Djibouti in the Horn of Africa because it looks like something they would carve and they speak French in Djibouti. I suggested to Gemini that perhaps the carving was from Haiti and it poo-poo'ed me and gave me several strong reasons why it was more likely from Djibouti.

I love the battles of AI. But I'm leaning towards Djibouti because it seems more exotic than Haiti.

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