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AI and You 9-12 / Week 04 / Explorer Quest
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Week 04 · How Generative Models Write

Explorer Quest

Explorer Quest: Family Tiny Text
// One word at a time, smooth but not always true
⏱ about 20 min

Explorer Quest: Family Tiny Text

Comet drops a cup of paper slips on the table. "No die today. Slips work for any tally."

Wren reads the family sentences from the quest card: the kettle is silver, the rug is soft, the door is blue.

"Every sentence is true," he says. "Let's see what the model does with them."

Nova hovers over the cup. "Would you like a hint?" she asks. "Put in one slip for each tally, then draw without looking."

Comet draws kettle, then soft. "The kettle is soft," she reads, and bursts out laughing.

"Smooth," says Wren, "and not true."

Comet hands you the cup. "Your turn. Find your family's funniest one."

  1. A generative model makes new content from patterns in its training data.
  2. It can join true pieces into sentences that are new, and some new ones are false.
  3. Confabulation is confidently presenting false content. Nothing in the sentence marks it as wrong.
◇ FAMILY TINY TEXT
You need a family member, paper, a pencil, a cup and some small paper slips.
Each person writes two short true sentences about objects at home. Use this pattern: the (thing) is (one describing word).
Use one word for each thing, such as kettle or rug. Last week's cards may not fit this pattern, so write new ones if needed.
Examples: the kettle is silver. The rug is soft. Use objects only, never anyone's name.
Check that the describing words are not all the same. At least two must be different.
Tally which words come after "the", and which come after "is".
Make a pile of slips for the words after "the", one slip for each tally. Make a second pile for the words after "is".
Put the first pile in the cup. Draw one slip, write it after "the", and put it back. Add "is".
Swap in the second pile and draw a describing word. That is one generated sentence.
Keep generating until you find a smooth sentence that is not true at home.
Talk together: why did the model write it, and how did you know it was false?
For a grown-up
This week your student learned how generative models write one word at a time.
Your student also learned why a model can sound sure and still be wrong.
Ask: why can a sentence sound right and still be false?
Ask: what would you check before acting on something a study helper said?
Everything in this course is done on paper. No app, website, account or AI tool is needed.
QUEST CHECK
  • Read the question.
  • Tap your answer.
Your tallies after "is" are silver 1, soft 2, blue 1. How many slips go in that pile?
The model wrote "the door is soft." Your door is not soft. Which box is that sentence in?
Quest reviewTrue or false?
Every sentence your family model wrote was one of your family's sentences.?
A false sentence from the model can sound just as smooth as a true one.?
The more tallies a word has, the more slips it gets in the cup.?
WHY THIS EXERCISEA family model shows the same pattern as Tiny Text: smooth new sentences, some of them false.
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