Section 1 – Practice
In this section, your project is to become an “AI detective” and really notice where AI appears in your life, and how it is different from simple rule-based programs.
Start by keeping an “AI Spotter Journal” for one full day. Each time you use a device, app, website, or game, quickly jot down what you did and what the technology did for you. Later that day, go back through your notes and, for each item, decide whether it is more likely “just rules” (following fixed instructions) or “learning from data” (changing or adapting based on examples). Write a short reason for each decision in your own words.
On a blank sheet, draw two columns labeled “Mostly Rules / No Learning” and “Learns from Data / AI.” Rewrite your examples into these two columns. Choose two or three technologies that were hardest to place and write a few sentences explaining why they were tricky. This will help you see that in real life, some tools are a mix of simple rules and learned patterns.
If you have access to Scratch, you can turn your ideas into a tiny quiz game. Go to: https://scratch.mit.edu/
Create a project where a sprite shows the name or picture of a technology (for example “calculator,” “search engine,” “video recommender”) and the player presses one of two keys to answer “AI” or “Not AI.” Use simple if blocks to check the answer and keep score. You’ve now built a small interactive “AI or Not?” game based on your own life.
If you have access to Hackidemia’s text-to-speech or speech-to-text activities, you can explore how a computer “reads” and “speaks” language. A general starting point is: https://hackidemia.com/
Take one paragraph from your AI Spotter Journal, paste it into a text-to-speech activity, and listen to how the system pronounces technical words. Then, try reading the same paragraph into a speech-to-text module and check how accurately your words are recognized. Write a short reflection about what sounded natural, what sounded robotic, and what this tells you about the strengths and limits of AI systems that handle language.