1 - Start ~4 mins
You already know digital content can look and move differently from newspapers and TV. Today the question is different: who can publish online, and what happens when machines can publish too?
You will run a short detective challenge on invented posts, captions and images, then check one real piece of content for yourself.
2 - Examine and Discuss ~5 mins
In a newspaper or TV bulletin, a few editors decide what goes out. Online, almost anyone can publish in minutes, and AI tools can write text or make images too.
Your job today is not a vibe check. It is: who made this, and what evidence can you point to?
3 - Hands-on: Human, Machine, or Both? ~17 mins
Work through the interactive activity as a class. For each invented item, look at the tells (the concrete clues you can point to), then commit to a verdict:
- Human: likely made by a person with little or no machine help
- Machine: likely generated mainly by an AI tool
- Both: a person and a machine both left clear marks on it
Before each reveal, take 20 seconds with the person next to you and both lock a verdict and your strongest tell. Each item has a fair answer you can back up with the tells. The point is your reasoning, not who shouts first. After each reveal, say which tell did the most work for you.
Human, machine, or both?
4 - Your Turn ~8 mins
We will judge one of the three pieces on the board unless your device is already open on a safe example (a post, article, review, image or short clip).
- Publisher (person, organisation, account, or "unclear")
- Verdict: human, machine, both, or cannot tell
- One tell that led you there
- One extra check you would run if you needed to be more sure
Be ready to share your piece and your call in one sentence.
5 - Make Sense ~3 mins
Pull the thread together. Digital publishing means almost anyone can put content online, often with few checks. AI tools mean machines can write, image and help edit that content too.
What changed in the detective challenge was not a magic eye for "AI vibes". It was slowing down long enough to ask: who made this, how, and what evidence can I point to? When a person and a machine both leave marks, saying "both" is often the honest call.
If anyone, and any machine, can publish, the burden shifts to you as a reader: check who is behind a piece before you lean on it.
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