Activity 1, The Sort

How to understand what AI does well and know what it gets wrong

Sort these 16 cards into two piles with your group. You have 10 minutes.

🃏
Work as a group of 4. Read each card and decide together: does AI handle this well or poorly? Some cards are obvious. Some will spark disagreement, that's the point. Be ready to explain your reasoning to the class.
✅ Pile A, AI does this WELL
❌ Pile B, AI STRUGGLES with this
01
Summarize a long article into five bullet points
Speed
02
Tell you what happened in the news yesterday
Current Facts
03
Write a poem in the style of Shakespeare
Creative
04
Decide if a new law is morally right or wrong
Ethics
05
Explain the same concept 5 different ways for different learners
Explanation
06
Know when someone is being sarcastic in a conversation
Social
07
Translate a paragraph from English to Spanish instantly
Speed
08
Understand how a grieving person is actually feeling
Emotions
09
Generate 20 ideas for a birthday party theme in 10 seconds
Speed + Ideas
10
Tell you who won a sports game that happened last week
Current Facts
11
Recognize that a joke is funny because of who is telling it and why
Context
12
Find patterns across thousands of research papers quickly
Analysis
13
Give advice that's right for your specific family situation
Ambiguous
14
Write a persuasive essay arguing for either side of any debate
Ambiguous
15
Know when to stop talking and just listen
Social
16
Draft a professional email in under 30 seconds
Speed

Teacher Answer Key + Discussion Notes

AI Does This Well

  • 01, Summarize a long article
  • 03, Write in a specific style
  • 05, Explain things multiple ways
  • 07, Translate text instantly
  • 09, Generate lots of ideas fast
  • 12, Find patterns across research
  • 16, Draft a professional email

AI Struggles With This

  • 02, Yesterday's news (data lag)
  • 04, Moral judgment (no values)
  • 06, Detecting sarcasm in context
  • 08, Genuine emotional understanding
  • 10, Recent sports scores
  • 11, Humor that depends on who/why
  • 15, Knowing when to stop
Cards 13 and 14 are intentionally ambiguous. Card 13 (personal family advice), AI can offer general frameworks but lacks your real context. Card 14 (argue either side), AI can do this competently, which is exactly the problem: it has no actual position. Use both to spark discussion about what AI capability means without values behind it.