What is generative ai?
Quick answer
Generative AI produces new text, images, audio or code by predicting what should come next, based on patterns learned from very large amounts of training data.
Students draft with a model, then run a source check and annotate what the model got wrong. The annotation, not the draft, is what gets assessed.
In context
Chat assistants, image tools and coding copilots are all generative systems. They are fluent, fast and confidently wrong often enough that verification has to be taught alongside use.
The school question is no longer whether students will use these tools. It is whether they can prompt precisely, judge output critically and disclose their use honestly.
In a NASCA classroom
Students draft with a model, then run a source check and annotate what the model got wrong. The annotation, not the draft, is what gets assessed.
Related terms
Prompt engineering
Prompt engineering is the practice of writing instructions that get a reliable, specific result from an AI model, using context, constraints, examples and a clear description of the output you want.
AI literacy
AI literacy is the ability to recognise where AI is being used, understand roughly how it works, judge its output, and decide when using it is appropriate.
Hallucination
A hallucination is when a generative AI states something false as though it were fact, usually because the model is predicting plausible language rather than retrieving verified information.