EduEsc: an educational escape game about AI (Estonia)

A 90-minute game about spotting AI and deepfakes, piloted with an international audience.

In Estonia, I designed and facilitated an educational escape game called EduEsc, which turns the abstract threats and opportunities of AI into a tangible game. Instead of passively receiving information, participants experienced firsthand, right there in the game, how easy it is to be fooled by generated content, and what role critical thinking plays in decoding reality.

The game that came out of this project, AIAIAI, is built on escape-room mechanics, where players work through a series of tasks connected to the use of AI. Over 90 minutes, teams face real time pressure that mimics the pressure of the digital environment, and have to collaborate to uncover manipulative patterns in data. The game doesn’t run on luck, but on a team’s ability to verify facts, spot deepfakes, and understand how models work.

The game has been successfully piloted for an international audience, and thanks to its structure it’s fully transferable to schools and community centres. Rather than wagging a warning finger, EduEsc offers a safe space to fail, where people experience firsthand what happens when they trust technology uncritically.

Key topics

Critical thinking in the age of generative artificial intelligence.
Detecting deepfakes and recognising manipulative patterns in data.
Gamifying education: turning complex technology topics into a game scenario.
Collaborating under pressure and reflecting on digital habits.
Escape-game methodology for building information literacy.