ImaginAItion: Building GenAI Literacy Through Play

Qianou Ma
3 min readDec 12, 2024

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Team MAJIC (Persuasive Design Class F24 with Geoff Kauffman)

The Problem

The rapid integration of Generative AI (GenAI) tools into daily life — from creative applications to professional decision-making — has created an urgent need for GenAI literacy. Many users lack a nuanced understanding of GenAI’s biases, limitations, and potential harms. While game-based learning has successfully introduced AI concepts to children, there are few interventions targeting a nuanced understanding of GenAI in young adults (ages 18–34), who are the most active users of tools like ChatGPT.

The Solution: ImaginAItion

ImaginAItion is a party game designed to foster GenAI literacy in young adults. Drawing inspiration from popular games like Telestrations and Caution Signs, it transforms learning into an interactive and collaborative experience. Players take on roles as prompters, drawers, and guessers, using GenAI tools to explore biases and improve their prompting skills. The game encourages critical reflection on how AI systems generate content and the inherent limitations of such systems. This game leverages persuasive strategies like Embedded Design and psychological theories like Dual-Process Thinking to achieve the following objective for young adults:

Objective: Develop a nuanced understanding of GenAI biases, improve mental models of its capabilities, and refine prompt engineering skills.

Game Mechanism

Feel free to interact with our Figma Prototype here! Use full screen for more readability.

1. Prompting Phase (40 seconds): One player selects two adjectives to pair with two predefined nouns, creating a challenging prompt for the drawer.

2. Drawing Phase (60 seconds): Using a GenAI tool, the drawer iteratively refines the prompt to generate an image that captures the chosen adjectives.

3. Guessing Phase (20 seconds): Another player evaluates the image and guesses the original adjectives from a set of options.

4. Scoring (untimed): Points are awarded for crafting effective prompts, generating accurate images, and making correct guesses. After three rounds, players discuss their strategies and insights, reflecting on GenAI’s capabilities and biases.

What’s Next?

We plan to do a comprehensive evaluation study on ImaginAItion. We aim to use this game as an opportunity to observe young adults’ current understanding and usage of GenAI and to measure its potential impact on GenAI literacy. Future iterations may explore more advanced game mechanics and adapt the format for different age groups or contexts.

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Qianou Ma
Qianou Ma

Written by Qianou Ma

I go by Christina too, and I’m a Ph.D. student at CMU HCII. Find my Chinese blogs at WeChat 一千只海鸥

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