Apple Turns 50 … Time to Clear Off the Table Again

One shared screen. One AI chat. One room of people.

Apple turns 50 this year. I keep returning to how past cultures dealt with general-purpose technologies. One of my favorite artifacts is an early Apple II ad. The copy read:

Clear the kitchen table. Bring in the color TV. Plug in your new Apple II and connect any standard cassette recorder/player. Now you’re ready for an evening of discovery in the new world of personal computers.

When ChatGPT hit a million users in five days, we missed something. There was no unboxing; it just arrived on our phones. At work, AI was greeted with the enthusiasm of a downsizing consultant. Usage went underground — shadow AI on personal devices, where mistakes stay personal. Schools embraced and banned it in the same breath.

Original Ad from the 1977 campaign for the Apple II.

We need this moment with AI. We missed that moment with social media, and look what that got us.

Maybe we need to clear off the kitchen island — or the conference table — for an hour of discovery. The 80-inch screens bolted to the wall can stay. The technology isn’t the barrier. Sitting down together is. Grab a tablet, a laptop, or a phone. And instead of a cassette player, plug in ChatGPT, Gemini, or Claude. If you’re a parent, try Khanmigo.

Here’s one way to start.

From Assisting Intelligence: Artificial Improv.

One shared screen. One AI chat. One room of people.

Improv is not chaos. It’s structured spontaneity. Improv has rules: “Yes, and…”, “listen before you respond”, “build on what your partner gives you.” Those same rules apply when you’re working with an AI. Each person takes a turn building on what the AI and the previous person produced. One rule: everyone starts the next prompt with “Yes, and…” Nobody starts over.

Discovery isn’t a marketing slogan. It can mean finding the limits — and AI has plenty of them. The discovery is in the thinking around the table, not what AI responds with.