AI-literacy game
Verification Bureau: An AI-Literacy Detective Game
Verification Bureau is a free, in-browser detective game that builds real AI and media literacy. You work three cases — stamping claims as verified or fabricated and inspecting a doctored photo — and each one teaches a concrete skill for telling what is real online from what only looks real.
Open Verification BureauWhat Verification Bureau is
Verification Bureau casts you as an investigator in a noir-styled bureau. In the first two cases you read claims and traces and stamp each one verified or fabricated, getting immediate feedback and an explanation of why. In the third case you inspect an AI-generated image and click the tells — hands, text, lighting, and patterns that give a fake away.
It runs in your browser as a Learning tile on map.ca, with nothing to install. The cases are short, deterministic, and forgiving — you can retry a judgment until it clicks, so the focus stays on learning the reasoning.
Who it is for
Students, educators, and anyone who wants to think more clearly about AI-generated content and misinformation. It assumes no technical background — the lessons come through play and plain-language explanations.
It is a strong fit for classrooms and media-literacy programs, because each case maps to a specific, transferable skill rather than a vague “be skeptical online.”
The three skills it teaches
The first case is about AI hallucinations: language models can produce fluent, confident text with invented facts, quotes, and sources, so specificity is not the same as truth. The second is about checking sources by reading laterally — leaving a suspicious page to see what independent outlets say, weighing domain age and named authors, and remembering that a padlock icon or slick design proves nothing.
The third case is about manipulated media: AI images often slip on hands, garbled text, inconsistent shadows, and warped patterns — useful first clues, but never the whole verdict, because the durable defense is provenance (where an image first appeared and whether the event is independently corroborated).
How to play Verification Bureau
- Open Verification Bureau. Launch the Verification Bureau Learning tile on map.ca — it opens in your browser with nothing to install.
- Read the case brief. Pick a case from the hub and read the scenario that sets up what you are investigating.
- Examine the evidence. Read each claim or trace, or inspect the image for tells, using the context the case provides.
- Make your judgment. Stamp claims verified or fabricated, or click the anomalies; wrong guesses explain why so you can try again.
- Answer the debrief and move on. Finish the short debrief questions to lock in the lesson, then return to the hub for the next case.
Frequently asked questions
Is Verification Bureau free, and is it suitable for classrooms?
Yes. It is free, runs in your browser on map.ca with nothing to install, and is built for classrooms and self-learners — each of its three cases teaches a specific, transferable media-literacy skill.
Does a padlock (HTTPS) mean a website is trustworthy?
No — and the game makes this point directly. HTTPS only means the connection is encrypted, not that the content is true; scam sites use it too. Trust comes from sources and accountability, not from browser chrome or polished design.
If I spot glitches in a photo, does that prove it is AI-generated?
Not on its own. One artifact is a hint and several are a pattern, but as generators improve those tells fade. The real test is provenance — who shared it, where it first appeared, and whether independent sources corroborate the event.
What does it teach about AI hallucinations?
That AI can generate confident, specific-sounding text — fake quotes, author names, and document numbers — that is simply made up. Because it reads as crisp and detailed, you have to verify claims against independent sources rather than trusting fluency.