I’ve never been as charmed and frustrated by one gadget as I have with the Poetry Camera. It looks like a playful, lo-fi object – white and cherry red with a color-matched woven strap. But its output leaves me feeling only frustration.

The camera generates AI poems instead of photos. You take a picture, it prints out a poem. The poems are uninspiring and repetitive. For example: 'Fingers curve the mug-/white cabinets hold their/secret:

:another April'. No matter how many times I tweak the prompts or try different settings, the results are always bland.

The camera is the brainchild of Kelin Carolyn Zhang and Ryan Mather, who brought their vision from a wacky idea to a functional product through painstaking iteration. But even with its clever web app for generating QR codes and an LED that communicates connection status, it’s just not hitting the mark for me.

Ultimately, I think poetry requires more than a computer can provide – soul, heart, and human touch. AI can crunch data, but it can’t feel what it’s saying. The Poetry Camera is a neat gadget, but it’s not for me.