Lab 2 · AI coding

AI-Assisted HTML

What changes when AI can write the code for you?

The premise

This is not about whether AI can code.
We already know it can.
The question is whether you can stay in control of what it produces.

By the end, you should be able to

• use an AI assistant to help modify an HTML page
• identify what the AI changed
• test whether generated code actually works
• make at least one intentional change yourself
• reflect critically on what AI contributed and what you contributed

Opening demo · start here

A page. Two lines.

Now ask AI: “Make this page feel like a rainy evening in Bergen.” Look at what comes back.

Look at what it decided without being asked

• What fonts did it choose?
• What colours?
• What layout?
• Did it interpret “Bergen” stereotypically?
• Which choices came from you?
• Which choices came from the model?

Activity 1 · start with something that belongs to you

Make a tiny page about one thing you actually care about

• a place
• music
• football
• a pet
• a social issue
• a game
• fashion
• food
• an experience
• something you collect
• something you hate
• something you wish existed

Minimum tags: <h1> <p> <img> <a>, the point is that intention exists before AI enters.

Activity 2 · give it to AI

Use AI to improve or transform your page

Rule: do not paste the result blindly. Read what it changed. Compare before / after.

Activity 3 · break the AI answer

Change one thing manually after AI generates it

• remove something unnecessary
• change the colour
• rewrite the heading
• change an interaction
• simplify the code
• fix something that did not work
• reject an AI design decision

This turns you from recipient into editor.

Reflect and document

Screenshots + a short written reflection

• What did you ask the AI to do?
• What did it change?
• What did you keep or reject?
• Did using AI give you more creative control, less control, or something in between? Why?

Keep your screenshots and a short reflection in your process log: how AI helped, and how you feel about using it, for or against, and why. Write your lab reflection on paper and hand it to Ingrid.

Closing question

If AI wrote half the code but you made the decisions ,
who made the page?

Do not resolve it. It's the bridge into the rest of the course.

Carry this with you

The software gives you possibilities.
It does not give you a reason.