Modern Monsters: Teaching Frankenstein Through the Lens of AI

Teaching Frankenstein through the lens of AI makes it immediately relevant to your students. Let’s dive into how to do this. Both Victor and today’s AI developers share the same slightly terrifying obsessions: creating things we don’t fully understand.

Just like Frankenstein’s Creature, AI can be brilliant and helpful, but also completely unpredictable. Mary Shelley’s novel invites readers to think about the responsibilities that come with creation and the dangers of unchecked ambition, issues that sound a lot like today’s debates about chatbots.

Both stories ask us to consider what moral obligations we have as inventors of something that can “think” for itself. Viewing Frankenstein through the lens of AI makes it clear that Shelley was writing a cautionary tale about what can happen when humans test ethical boundaries. 

Framing the Unit with an Overarching Essential Question

When setting up a Frankenstein unit, an overarching Essential Question really brings the whole story “to life,” if you know what I mean. For this unit, a great EQ is “What is the value of creating, and what are the dangers?” It provides a framework that connects the 19th-century novel to modern debates about AI, technology, and human ambition.

These questions encourage students to consider Victor Frankenstein’s ambition alongside today’s tech innovations, like whether letting ChatGPT write their essays counts as a “danger of creation.” One of the best things about an Essential Question is that it helps students push beyond surface-level reading, and explore more open-ended, complex ideas.

In short, meaningful Essential Questions provoke critical thinking and lively debate, keeping the classroom buzzing with electricity (without the lightning strike). 

Students Create Their Own AI Bot To Solve a Problem

One of the highlights of this Frankenstein unit is the culminating assessment. Rather than write another essay, students get a chance to play “modern-day Frankensteins” and design the concept for their very own AI chatbot. Working together, students get to be imaginative and dream up an invention that could solve a real problem in the world, while considering its potential to do good, as well as any ethical concerns. Through this assignment, students get a chance to collaborate, problem-solve, and actually apply the themes they have been discussing in class, but in a tangible way. 

At the same time, the work connects directly to the unit’s essential question: “What is the value of creating, and what are the dangers?” Turning these questions into a hands-on experience helps students see them as real and relevant. Although this  assessment goes beyond a traditional essay, it still asks students to reflect on their own creative process in relation to Victor’s, using textual evidence from the text.

This gives students a chance to practice skills like synthesizing ideas and crafting arguments about the novel’s themes, just like a essay would. Ultimately, the assessment does more than check their knowledge of Frankenstein; it demonstrates how they can use the novel to think critically about ethics and the responsibilities of creation. 

The project is divided into clear step-by-step instructions (no grave-digging required): 

Step 1: Brainstorm

In groups, students start by brainstorming the purpose of their AI bot: What problems will it solve? Who will use it? How might it help humanity? 

Step 2: Create a “Blueprint”

Once they have an idea, they complete a one-pager that lays out their bot’s purpose, functions, potential benefits, and possible downfalls (basically a blueprint for their “monster.”) One group might design a chatbot that helps college roommates build agreements, though one of its pitfalls could be a passive-aggressive texting war. Another idea is a chatbot called “Sherlock,” a crime-reporting bot that organizes data to promote safer communities, though it raises concerns about false reports and misuse. 

Step 3: Experiment

Next, students put their idea to the test by drafting prompts and trying them out with existing AI tools, recording their trial-and-error process along the way. This is usually the moment where students realize how unpredictable creations can be. 

Step 4: Create an Advertisement

From there, groups design an advertisement for their invention. They create a name, visuals, and a short pitch that explains what their bot does and why the community should care. 

Step 5: Reflect

Finally, the assessment wraps up with a reflection that ties the project back to the unit’s Essential Question. Students evaluate their own experience as “creators” alongside Victor’s, using textual evidence to make connections and pondering the questions Victor should have asked, but didn’t. 

What makes this such an effective final project is the way it balances creativity with rigor. Students build collaboration and problem-solving skills though group work, while the reflection encourages deep thinking. Rather than simply writing about the novel, they live out the themes of Frankenstein. It’s memorable, and meaningful, leaving students with a stronger understanding of Shelley’s novel and the technology shaping our modern world. 

Why It’s So Critical To Dig Deep Into the Topic of AI Now

Artificial Intelligence is here to stay, in fact, and it’s becoming more and more a part of daily life. Therefore, it is more important than ever to talk about what that means for our classrooms, workplaces, and everyday experiences. AI is changing the way people access information, solve problems, and communicate. It also raises big questions about what it means for creativity and responsibility.

That’s why it’s so important to introduce these conversations into the classroom now. If we want students to thrive in a world with AI, we need to give them the tools to engage with it thoughtfully. Whether it’s Victor’s Creature or a ChatGPT writing someone’s essay, students must understand that every creation carries consequences, whether it is intentional or not. 

The dangers of AI aren’t just about chatbots going rogue, they’re also about what happens when we lean too much on it. Studies more and more highlight the risks of over reliance on AI, showing it can damage and weaken skills such as critical thinking and our writing ability. When students resort to using AI they risk losing their ability to imagine creatively for themselves.

If they continue to overuse AI, their brain will stop exercising those skills we strive to teach in the classroom. Not to mention, we’ve learned that AI can carry bias, spread misinformation, and violate privacy. That makes the classroom the perfect environment to tackle these conversations, helping students to recognize AI’s benefits and drawbacks, and encouraging them to engage with it mindfully.  

And what better text to spark those conversations than Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein? Shelley asks readers to reflect on what it means to create something we can’t fully control. The truth is, AI has incredible potential, but it also has the power to reshape our world. If we don’t have those hard conversations now, that’s when the real horror story begins. 

That’s the reason this unit was designed! I’ve put together everything you need, so you don’t have to “stitch” this unit together yourself! You can access the full Frankenstein unit, packed with lesson plans, activities, and assessments, when you join the English Teacher Vault. 

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