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AI Explorers 6-8 / Week 01 / Explorer Quest
6/6
Week 01 · What Counts as AI?

Explorer Quest

Explorer Quest: AI or Not?
// Objectives, outputs and autonomy
⏱ about 20 min

Explorer Quest: AI or Not?

The snapshot pile is finally quiet, and the crew has a free evening on the station.

Rocket deals out a stack of blank index cards. "New game," he announces. "It is called AI or Not."

Raven writes the rules on the back of a mission log. "Each card describes a machine. You decide what kind of system it is."

Nova hovers over the table and dims her lights to game mode. "Remember to name the output," she says. "That is where the clues are."

Rocket shuffles the deck twice and grins at everyone.

  1. An AI system is an engineered or machine-based system. For a set of objectives, it produces predictions, recommendations or decisions.
  2. AI systems work with different levels of autonomy, and every setting has trade-offs.
  3. A fixed program follows exact steps for every case. It is not AI.
  4. Real AI is a tool people build. It does not think or feel like a person, and it can be wrong.
  5. Sky Sorter will sort snapshot cards into star, planet, comet and satellite streak.
◇ AI OR NOT?
Each player writes four index cards. Each card describes an imagined machine and what it does.
Mix in fixed programs, like a microwave timer, and AI systems, like an imagined sorter that predicts labels.
Shuffle and take turns reading a card aloud.
The other players say fixed program or AI system, and name the output if there is one.
For AI cards, discuss: how much autonomy should this machine have, and who should check it?
For a grown-up
Ask: what makes something an AI system rather than a fixed program?
Ask: if a machine decided something about you, would you want a person to check it? Why?
This course never connects your student to a real AI tool, chatbot or app.
QUEST CHECK
  • Read the question.
  • Tap your answer.
A card says: "A microwave counts down from 90 seconds." What kind of system?
A card says: "An imagined helper suggests which chores to do first." Which output?
A card says: "An imagined sorter files cards with no one checking." What is its autonomy?
Is Nova a real product or a story character? Type real or story.
WHY THIS EXERCISENova is fiction, while real AI is a tool people build, and it can be wrong.
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