Beyond the Hype: Real Limitations of Today’s AI

The main goals of this ESL lesson plan are for students to:

• – Examine AI failures and limitations by reading articles about hilarious AI mistakes and brand damage, and watching videos about LLM technology from Oxford researchers.
• – Acquire and use advanced vocabulary in context exercises and comprehension tasks that explore the gap between AI hype and reality, while developing their critical analysis skills.
• – Debate AI’s role in society by discussing content moderation challenges and weighing up the pros and cons of using artificial intelligence in real-world applications.

This C2 reading practice lesson focuses on AI limitations,  and features various discussion and language exercises. Students engage with real-world scenarios involving AI failures using complex vocabulary.

Warm-up

Students discuss which of a selection of AI limitations are the most problematic.

Video

Students watch a video “Oxford’s AI Chair: LLMs are a HACK.” Then they summarise the main messages from the video using provided phrases.

Reading

Next, students dive into three short articles:

• – 50 AI Art Fails That Are Both Horrifying And Hilarious
• – 25 AI Fails That Were More “Dumbass” Than “Future Human Overlord”
• – Don’t Let an AI Failure Harm Your Brand

Each article comes with its own follow-up tasks. These include discussing underlying issues and limitations of AI, and filling in missing words in context. These tasks are designed to build vocabulary, boost reading skills, and spark meaningful conversations.

Discussion

To wrap up the lesson, students weigh up the benefits and drawbacks of using AI to moderate social media content.