Activity: AI or HI: Artificial Intelligence vs Human Ingenuity

In this interactive and fast-paced activity, students will work in teams to solve a variety of challenges across subjects like math, science, grammar, pop culture, and more, all while competing to earn the highest score. At first, teams will rely solely on human effort and collaboration. But as the rounds progress, they’ll face a choice: should they “hire” AI to help complete tasks more efficiently, even if it comes at a cost? 

Economics

Through this activity, students will confront real economic trade-offs, analyzing the marginal benefits and marginal costs of using AI. Along the way, they’ll explore when artificial intelligence acts as a substitute for human labor, when it serves as a complement, and how limited resources like time and team members shape decision-making. It’s a lesson in economics that blends strategy, creativity, and technology, highlighting how the tools of the future intersect with the choices we make today.

Objectives

Students will be able to:

• Identify the marginal (additional) costs of using AI and the marginal benefits of using AI.
• Provide examples of how AI can be a substitute for labor, and examples of how it can be a complement to labor.
• Analyze how limited resources (time, information, capital, and team members) affect decision-making in competitive settings.
• Evaluate the opportunity costs involved in choosing between human effort and AI assistance.

Key Terms

Marginal benefit
The additional benefit of producing one more unit or employing one more unit of a resource.

Marginal Cost
The additional cost of producing one more unit or employing one more unit of a resource.

Substitute
Goods, services, or resources that can be used in place of one another. 

Complement
Goods, services, or resources that are used together.

Capital
Man-made resources used in the production of goods and services.  They are not used up in the production; rather, they can be used over and over again. Examples: Buildings, machines, tools, software.

Opportunity Cost
The value of the next best alternative not chosen.

Standards and Benchmarks

STANDARD 1: Scarcity

Students will understand that productive resources are limited. Therefore, people can not have all the goods and services they want; as a result, they must choose some things and give up others.

• Benchmark 2: Making good choices should involve trading off the expected value of one opportunity against the expected value of its best alternative.

CONTENT STANDARD 2: Decision Making

Students will understand that effective decision making requires comparing the additional costs of alternatives with the additional benefits. Many choices involve doing a little more or a little less of something:  few choices are “all or nothing” decisions. 

• Benchmark 1: To produce the profit-maximizing level of output and hire the optimal number of workers and other resources, producers must compare the marginal benefits and marginal costs of producing a little more with the marginal benefits and marginal costs of producing a little less.