Writing scavenger hunt clues using artificial intelligence

One of our kids had a party in a field recently and we organised a scavenger hunt as one of the party games. You can read about the mechanisms of how the hunt went together in my previous blog post, but what I didn't go into detail there is how we came up with the clues.

For those, we actually used ChatGPT - the free AI tool from OpenAi.

We made a list of locations where we wanted clues to be found - e.g. the orchard, the polytunnel, the rusty old gate, the tree house, etc. - and decided on an order. We didn't want the hunt to be over too quickly as it was the main activity at the party, so we made sure we had all the kids running around quite a bit! We then asked ChatGPT to put together the clues. Here are some of the examples it came up with:

Top Gate:

At the highest point we wait
The gate is where to start your date
Step through and up you go
Where will you end up, we'll let you know.

Water trough:

Not quite a lake, but big and round
Holds the treasure of the land, deep underground
Its walls and roof provide a drink
For animals and humans, so try to think.

Polytunnel:

Under the shelter of a plastic roof, you'll
find something growing with living proof,
plants and flowers, vegetables galore,
explore and find what you're looking for.

Old oak tree:

Majestic and strong, a sight to behold
In the heart of the land, for the brave and the bold
Embrace its beauty, its branches and trunk
A symbol of life that doesn't play a punk.

Some needed some tweaking - as for example the tree house wasn't actually in a tree and ChatGPT assumed it was, which you can't blame it for. But overall it was fantastic, and even for the ones we had to change it gave us a great starting point as writing rhyming clues from scratch can take a long time if you're not naturally poetic!