AI aids research of a philatelic item

U.S. Stamp Notes by John M. Hotchner

Artificial intelligence (AI) is coming to philately. I was recently introduced to its capabilities by my friend Alex Haimann, who has been researching its uses. To experiment we entered several items with foreign language content to see what an AI app (application) would come up with.

One of the items is the flyer shown front and back above. It’s been made into a philatelic item by a first-day canceled Gulf War stamp (Scott 3191b) from the Celebrate the Century sheet of stamps marking events of the 1990s. The stamp on the flyer marks the Gulf War of 1990-91.

We scanned the flyer into the AI app, and 15 seconds later it returned a comprehensive diagnosis of the otherwise unintelligible (to me) Arabic script.

Turns out it is a psychological warfare leaflet dropped to Iraqi troops during the Gulf War to encourage them to surrender. The flyer leveraged both emotional and practical appeals to achieve its objective.

The text provides clear instructions on how to surrender safely and guarantees the troops’ safety after doing so. The thought bubble showing the soldier and his family is a reminder of what the soldier has at home and might lose if he keeps fighting.

Clearly AI is going to be a powerful tool for stamp and cover collecting. For me it is a giant leap into the future, akin to the point at which I began to use the internet to find in minutes facts and documents I needed, instead of having to go to the library and spend hours trying to find just the right references.

Yes, I know that AI has its negatives, but for the postal historian, it is a resource that we are only beginning to tap.

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