AI UNIT 1 • STAGE 1 OF 5
Meet the Machine
Have your first real conversation with an AI, and start noticing how it works
Before we start
The panel in the middle is a guided AI sandbox. It's a real AI, but it's set up for a classroom: it stays on topic, and everything you type is saved so your teacher can see your work. Be respectful and curious, the way you would be with any tool that's new to you.
ðŠķ A Native way in
When an elder shares knowledge, you can ask "how do you know that?" Keep that same question in your pocket for the AI. We'll come back to it.
Say hello
In the middle panel, type a simple message and press Ask. Try introducing yourself, or just asking what it can do.
Try one of these
Click a prompt to drop it into the box, or write your own:
Hi! Can you explain what you are in one sentence? What kinds of questions are you good at answering? What are you NOT good at?Read the answer slowly. Notice that it responds in full, confident sentences, even about what it can't do.
Ask it the elder's question
Now push a little. Ask the AI how it actually knows things.
Try this
How do you know the things you tell me? Where did you learn them?The AI will likely say it "learned from data" or "was trained on text." Hold onto that answer, Stage 3 is all about what that really means.
ðĄ Key idea
The AI is not remembering a fact from a specific book or person. It's predicting words that usually go together, based on patterns in everything it was shown. It can sound sure and still be wrong.
Write it down
Open the Field Notes panel on the right. This is where you keep your own record, not the AI's. Answer the starter questions there in your own words.
Your notes save automatically. You'll build on them in every stage of this unit, so be honest and specific.
ð You're doing the real work
Anyone can type a question into an AI. The skill you're building is noticing, what it did well, what felt off, and what you'd want to check. That's what carries into every unit ahead.
Your own record. Answer these in your own words as you go:
- 1. In one sentence, what is this AI?
- 2. What did it say when you asked how it knows things?
- 3. What's one thing it said that you'd want to double-check?
Saved automatically.