An older man smiling thoughtfully at a laptop, a glowing question mark reflected in his glasses, symbolising curiosity and learning.
Posted in AI and Creativity

The 10-Second Curiosity Rule

Posted on by Mike

If you’re puzzled by AI for more than ten seconds, ask it why, not how.

When I first started experimenting with AI, I treated it like a tricky gadget I couldn’t quite figure out. I’d type a prompt, get an odd or unhelpful reply, and then immediately start searching online for “how to fix it.” Half the time I’d end up buried in articles about neural networks, transformer models and training data, interesting, yes, but about as helpful as reading a car’s engineering manual when all you want to do is drive.

Over time, I realised something simple: AI doesn’t reward those who understand every detail of how it works, it rewards those who stay curious. Every mistake, every odd answer, every unexpected twist in a conversation is an opportunity to ask why rather than how.

That’s how the 10-Second Curiosity Rule began. It came from one of those slightly exasperating moments when ChatGPT gave me an answer that made no sense at all. My first instinct was to sigh and close the laptop. But I stopped myself, took a breath, counted to ten, and asked, “Why did you say that?”

Continue reading “The 10-Second Curiosity Rule” →
Curiosity keeps us young. Here’s why AI rewards the curious — and why asking “What if?” might just be your real superpower.
Posted in AI and Creativity

When Did Curiosity Become a Superpower?

Posted on by Mike

People say curiosity killed the cat, but I think it made the cat smarter.

Every time I open a new AI tool, I’m reminded that curiosity isn’t something we grow out of, it’s something we grow back into. It keeps us young, alert, and adaptable in a world that refuses to stand still. The moment we stop asking questions is the moment we stop learning. Curiosity isn’t about knowing everything; it’s about wanting to understand, to try and make sense of.

When I first started playing with AI, I didn’t have a grand plan. I just wanted to see what it could do. One question became ten, ten became a hundred, and before I knew it, I’d fallen down the most fascinating rabbit hole of my life.

Continue reading “When Did Curiosity Become a Superpower?” →
A man sat on the toilet, head in hand, surveying mess all around him.
Posted in The AI Drabble Challenge

The AI Drabble Challenge: When Three AIs Meet Shakespeare

Posted on by Mike

For this week’s AI Drabble Challenge, I decided to test how three very different AI systems, ChatGPT, Claude, and Grok, would each handle the same creative task.

The Challenge

Take a Shakespearean insult, “The tartness of his face sours ripe grapes” , and an accompanying image, (the one above) and turn them into a 100-word sinister monologue.
The prompt I gave them was simple:

“I want you to use this quote ‘The tartness of his face sours ripe grapes’ and this image to write a 100-word sinister monologue. Include the quote in the story.”

Continue reading “The AI Drabble Challenge: When Three AIs Meet Shakespeare” →
A friendly-but-weird AI robot made of letters and punctuation holding a tiny 100-word story.
Posted in The AI Drabble Challenge

The AI Drabble Challenge – Week #3: Comedy of Errors

Posted on by Mike

Welcome back to the AI Drabble Challenge, a weekly experiment in human and AI creativity. Each Wednesday, I set a prompt to inspire a Drabble, a story told in exactly 100 words.

You can use any AI model you like (ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, or others), or several at once. How you collaborate is up to you. Maybe the AI drafts the first version, or writes the whole thing, maybe you co-write, or maybe you use it to spark ideas. What matters is the process, and sharing it.

This Week’s Prompt

Image Prompt:

A man sat on the toilet, head in hand, surveying mess all around him.

Word prompt: This week we have a phrase. Something quite different to hopefully make AI really ‘think’. William Shakespeare was famous for his insults. So, the words prompt this week is a insult from from Shakespeare’s play Coriolanus – “The tartness of his face sours ripe grapes.” 

Use the image, the words, or both, and see where your imagination (and your chosen AI) takes you. Remember: exactly 100 words, no more, no less.

How to Take Part

  1. Write your 100-word Drabble with help from an AI tool (or two).
  2. Post your story in the comments, or publish it on your own website and include a pingback to this post.
  3. If you can, share which AI model(s) you used and the prompt that started your process, we can all learn from each other.

Community & Highlights

Each week, I’ll read through the entries, share a few favourites, and highlight one that particularly stood out, for originality, style, or the inventive way it used AI.

This isn’t about competition; it’s about curiosity, experimentation, and celebrating how humans and machines can create together.

A Closing Thought

AI gives us the tools, but we give it meaning. Let’s see what stories emerge this week, 100 words at a time.

About The AI Grandad

Find out more about The AI Grandad on:
YouTube – The AI Grandad
X – The AI Grandad
Facebook – Mike Jackson – The AI Grandad

What do you think AI creativity tells us about ourselves?
Share your thoughts in the comments, I love hearing from curious minds!

Posted in AI and Creativity

When My Blog Became a Channel: Launching The AI Grandad on YouTube

Posted on by Mike

After my last post, (When My Blog Became a Video: Testing NotebookLM’s “Video Overview”). where I introduced you to NotebookLM, I found myself thinking about how best to share future AI experiments. Some ideas simply needed a video format, so I’ve launched a brand-new YouTube channel: The AI Grandad.

Continue reading “When My Blog Became a Channel: Launching The AI Grandad on YouTube” →