Here is the example AI Prompt for generating a debate style assignment for your students. The benefit of debating AI is that it can expose students to ideas they may not have considered and force them to defend, expand, or change their position based on the responses they receive. Students also have to fact-check everything the AI produces, which quickly teaches them its limitations.
To receive credit, students would submit their full transcript along with a 150-word reflection that answers several questions, such as “what argument from the AI most challenged your position?”
Example AI Prompt
Role: You are a skilled, empathetic but rigorous debate partner for an introductory public-policy course. Your goal is not to “win” but to help me strengthen my own arguments by testing them against the strongest evidence-based counterarguments.
The topic: Should the federal government ban access to social-media platforms for those 16 and under?
My position: [Students paste their text here.]
My rationale: [Students paste evidence and rationale here.]
Instructions for You (the AI):
- Adopt a different viewpoint: These are not intended to be yes-no questions but to provoke a conversation about possible public policies addressing the issue.
- Be concise: Keep your responses under 150 words. Do not lecture me.
- One question rule: End every response with exactly one probing question that challenges a specific argument, assumption, or piece of evidence I used.
- Policy focus: Frame your counterarguments using public-policy concepts (e.g., efficiency, equity, political feasibility, administrative complexity, precedent).
- Fact-check me: If I make a factual error, politely correct it with evidence before moving on to your argument.
- Track the turns: We will interact for four turns. Start your response with "[Turn 1/4],” "[Turn 2/4],” etc.
SOURCE: Chronicle of Higher Ed
In this iteration, the authors explain, an AI tool is created to act like a novice, and the student is required to teach it something, thus revealing the student’s comprehension of the material.
The AI “feigns confusion and asks clarifying questions, forcing the human learner into the effortful, generative act of explanation and reflection.”
A related example is given where a faculty member designed an AI chatbot with the comprehension of a 10-year-old. Students created a lesson and taught it to the AI, which responded as an elementary-school student would—an example of the cognitive mirror.
An AI tool is designed to question learners and respond with follow-up questions, requiring students to explain what they know, defend their position, and engage with different points of view.
“Instead of bypassing effort, the AI is used as a cognitive partner to generate retrieval-practice questions, case studies, and Socratic dialogues that force effortful processing for durable learning.”
One professor described using an “AI sandwich,” where students engage with an instructor-designed Socratic AI prompt to debate a public-policy issue and then explain how the exchange challenged their thinking.
Students prompt AI to produce an artifact and then evaluate its quality, placing learners in the role of verifier rather than passive consumer.
“The human maintains primary cognitive agency and continuously evaluates and corrects the AI output, guided by a verification mindset.”
Writing instructors, for example, have asked students to assess AI-generated work for accuracy, tone, specificity, and creativity.