AI DETECTIVE is an engaging set of 10 investigation-style cases designed to develop critical thinking, media literacy, AI literacy, and information verification skills.

Students become detectives and investigate realistic-looking pieces of evidence: an AI response with a suspicious citation, an AI-generated image, a famous quote, a misleading graph, a confident but incorrect AI answer, a real photograph used in the wrong context, a questionable expert, a screenshot, an incomplete AI summary, and several websites repeating the same claim.

The goal is not simply to decide whether something is true or false. Students learn to ask a much more important question:

What do I need to verify – and how can I verify it?

Each case encourages students to examine the evidence, identify what does not add up, suggest their own verification strategy, and then evaluate different possible approaches as:

✅ VERIFY THIS WAY
🤔 MAY HELP, BUT NOT ENOUGH
❌ NOT THIS WAY

Every investigation is followed by a detailed Solution Card explaining what was suspicious, how the information could be verified, why the original evidence was misleading, and what key detective rule students should remember.

What is included

• 10 complete AI Detective cases + 10 Solution Cards

• teacher methodology and practical classroom instructions

• overview of all cases and the skill practiced in each one

• 5 Questions of the AI Detective printable reference sheet

• final student self-reflection

• activities suitable for individual work, pairs, groups, stations, or whole-class discussion

• approximately 10–15 minutes per case

• no internet required for the basic version; students can also carry out real online verification when devices are available

• 28-page PDF

• designed primarily for lower secondary / middle school and high school students

The ten cases focus on fabricated sources, AI-generated images, fake quotations, misleading graphs, AI hallucinations and factual errors, false context, fake authority, screenshots, misleading summaries, and circular reporting.

Students repeatedly work with five essential verification questions:

SOURCE → AUTHOR → DATE → CONTEXT → EVIDENCE

This makes AI DETECTIVE ideal for lessons focused on critical thinking, digital literacy, media literacy, AI literacy, information literacy, internet safety, research skills, and responsible use of artificial intelligence.

The cases can be completed in order, used individually as short activities, or selected according to the skill you want to practise. Two or three cases can easily be incorporated into a standard lesson, while the full set can also be used as a longer unit or station activity.

Don’t guess. Investigate. Verify.