Professor Builds AI Detection Bias Game with Claude Code

Project Overview

A full professor at a UK university built Flagged, a browser-based game that simulates the experience of using AI detection tools on student submissions. The professor researches AI detection in education and created this interactive demonstration to show how abstract statistics about false positives become concrete when players make decisions that affect simulated students.

Game Mechanics

Players take the role of an assistant professor whose university has run twelve student submissions through an AI detection tool. Each submission returns with a probability score. Players must decide whether to flag the submission for investigation or pass it. They can optionally open each student's file before deciding, which contains information about the student's programme, background, and circumstances.

The key learning outcome occurs when players discover they make different decisions after reading student files versus when they only look at the detection score. As the professor notes: "Every flag lands on a real person."

Technical Implementation

The entire project was built with Claude Code and consists of a single HTML file with vanilla JavaScript and CSS. There are no frameworks or dependencies. Claude Code wrote every line of code based on the professor's design and game logic.

Development Insights

The professor reported that the hardest part of using Claude Code wasn't the coding itself, but getting Claude to understand that the game needed to make players uncomfortable. The professor had to repeatedly push back against Claude's tendency to soften outcomes or add reassuring language. The professor emphasized: "The whole point is that there is no reassuring language when you wrongly flag a student."

Educational Context

The game addresses research showing AI detection tools produce false positive rates of up to 61.3% for non-native English speakers. The professor noted that while this statistic is concerning, it doesn't "land with people the way it should" until they experience the decision-making process firsthand.

The game is live and free to play at https://samillingworth.itch.io/flagged.