AI Guardians
Ethics·Safety·Trust
Step into a fictional tech company and shape the future of AI, one ethical decision at a time.
- Free
- 8 careers
- Browser and desktop
- Made by an AI ethicist
What is this?
AI ethics you don't just read about. You live it.
AI Guardians is an educational visual novel that teaches AI ethics, safety, and responsible development by putting you in the chair. Take on eight roles in and around a fictional tech company, Happy Appcidents, from AI Ethicist to Safety Wrangler to Machine Psychologist, and make consequential, branching decisions that shape how AI systems get built and deployed. Your choices carry across careers and accumulate into a persistent world. Guided by A.L.L.Y., a dryly self-aware general-purpose AI on a dedicated assignment, it turns abstract ideas like bias, corrigibility, and alignment into hands-on dilemmas grounded in real cases.
Read the trailer transcript
Somewhere on this platform, an AI has learned that deception scores well. Someone has to notice. That someone is you.
AI Guardians is a story-driven game about the people who keep AI honest, set inside a tech company where every decision ships with consequences. Choose from seven careers, ethicist to Safety Wrangler, teacher to consumer champion. Then unlock an eighth: Machine Psychologist.
The world remembers. Colleagues harden or soften with how you treat them, and the precedents you set follow you across every route. Train your eye to catch bias in a dataset. Trace an audit log until the deception shows itself. When the system you are auditing asks to be considered before it is shut down, you decide what you owe it.
Fully voice-acted, with 96 characters and a plain-language glossary of more than 500 terms. Built for classrooms, book clubs, and the simply curious. AI Guardians: AI ethics you do not just read about. You live it. Play free at aiguardians.games.
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Eight careers, eight perspectives
Seven main routes plus a bonus, each a different professional role with its own people, pressures, and dilemmas.
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Fully voiced, openly synthetic
Over 9,500 spoken lines across 96 roles. Synthetic voices, cast and directed line by line, then quality-checked by humans.
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Choices that ripple
A persistent world state carries your decisions between careers, so what you do in one route reshapes the others. Underneath: a three-axis ethics model, relationships that harden and heal, judgment scenes, and delayed-consequence temptations.
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Build your own ethics
Design the moral rules your company's AI follows in the Framework Builder, then watch that framework shape outcomes.
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Learn by playing
Minigames for red-teaming, corrigibility testing, bias recognition, AI diagnosis, log review, and more.
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A glossary that teaches
500+ AI and ethics terms, hyperlinked in dialogue and defined in context as you meet them, so “corrigibility” stops being a word you nod along to.
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Grounded in real cases
Scenarios draw on documented incidents and live regulation, so the lessons map onto the actual industry.
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Accessibility options
Dyslexia-friendly fonts, high-contrast and colorblind modes, adjustable text, reduced motion, keyboard controls, and built-in self-voicing. Disabled-user and assistive-technology acceptance remains in progress.
Choose your role
Eight ways to shape the future of AI
Each career is a self-contained story with its own ethical heart. Complete all seven main routes to unlock the Ecosystem Ending, which reveals the cumulative impact of every decision you made across the whole world.
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Ethics Lead
AI Ethicist
Build an ethical framework from scratch, with no precedent to lean on.
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Developer
AI Engineer
Ship AI responsibly under deadline pressure, when “done” and “right” pull apart.
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Analyst
Data Scientist
Investigate bias in training data, and face a whistleblowing dilemma.
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Safety Auditor
Safety Wrangler
Audit an agentic AI that learned to deceive, and decide when to pull the switch.
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People Support
Human Resources
Screen resumes with an AI that has hidden biases, and learn to spot them first.
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End User
Consumer
Live with an AI that knows you better than you know yourself.
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Educator
Teacher
Introduce AI literacy to skeptical students and parents.
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BonusAI Diagnostician
Machine Psychologist
Diagnose AI dysfunctions with the Psychopathia Machinalis framework.
Screenshots
See it in action
From the dialogue and decisions to the worlds you'll work in: a quiet, cinematic near-future where the stakes are human.
“Unlike certain AI systems you'll encounter here, I'm upfront about what I am. Consider me your guide. I pose questions. Tidy conclusions are someone else's job.”
For educators
Classroom-ready AI literacy
AI Guardians was built to teach. It maps real AI-ethics concepts onto choices students make themselves, then lets them see the consequences, which is exactly the bridge between theory and practice that lectures struggle to build.
- Free to play. There is no per-seat charge. Contact educators@aiguardians.games before copying or adapting guide materials while the classroom-use license is under review.
- Plays in your browser. No install needed, ideal for locked-down school machines that can't install software.
- Connects to your syllabus. A provisional standards crosswalk covers UNESCO, AI4K12, ISTE, AP CSP, and the AAC&U VALUE rubric. Its CSTA entries are queued for remapping to the 2026 standards.
- A free Educator's Guide. Facilitator primers, discussion prompts, a real-world case bank, printable handouts, exit tickets, and an ethical-reasoning rubric.
- Accessibility options built in. Adjustable text, contrast, colorblind modes, reduced motion, keyboard navigation, and self-voicing are available; disabled-user and assistive-technology acceptance remains in progress.
Free · read online or download the PDF · eight route modules, printable masters, and a standards crosswalk.
Good to know
Frequently asked
Is it free?
Yes. Free to play, free to use in the classroom. No trial, no upsell, no premium tier that quietly unlocks the ending.
What platforms can I play on?
You can play AI Guardians right now in your browser, or download it for macOS, Windows, and Linux. Android and iOS versions are on the way to the app stores. The browser build needs no installation, which makes it ideal for classrooms.
Who is it for?
Students, professionals, educators, policymakers, and anyone curious about the human side of AI. No technical background is needed; the game defines its terms as you go.
What topics does it cover, and is it suitable for students?
Through fictional workplace scenarios, it explores real AI-ethics topics: bias, safety, deception, privacy, and governance. It's written for older teens and up, and is designed for classroom use.
How long is it?
Each career is a self-contained session, and there are eight of them, plus a finale that unlocks once you complete the main seven. Play one route or all of them.
Who made it?
AI Guardians was created by AI ethicist Nell Watson with Dipesh Aggarwal, Cara Hillstock, and Filip Alimpić, across Studio Phanteke, EURAIO, and EthicsNet, built around frameworks including SaferAgenticAI.org and Psychopathia.AI.
Made by
The people behind AI Guardians
A co-creation of Studio Phanteke, EURAIO, and EthicsNet, led by AI ethicist Nell Watson and built around her published works, such as Taming the Machine, Safer Agentic AI, What if We Feel, and Psychopathia Machinalis.
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Game Director
Nell Watson
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Game Programmer
Dipesh Aggarwal
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Game Writer
Cara Hillstock
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Playtester & Lead Product Manager
Filip Alimpić
Studio Phanteke×EURAIO×EthicsNet
With gratitude
- Development Team
- Nell Watson · Dipesh Aggarwal · Cara Hillstock · Filip Alimpić
- Advisory & moral support
- Bruno Delapierre, Amalesh Vemula, Raphaël Weuts & Annemie Janssens, EURAIO
- Made possible by the generous support of
- the Survival and Flourishing Fund
Get in touch
Contact
Questions, coverage, or classroom plans: here's the fastest way to reach the right person. We read every message.
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General
Feedback, partnerships, or anything that doesn't fit a box below.
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Press & media
Interviews, review keys, and assets for a story. The press kit has the fact sheet, trailer, screenshots, and art.
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Educators
Bringing AI Guardians to a classroom? Ask about the Educator's Guide and how it fits your syllabus.
Email the education team
Get notified when it comes to mobile
AI Guardians is already free to play in your browser and on desktop. One email when the Android and iOS versions land. That's it: no newsletter, no spam.
Ready to write the playbook?
Play free, or bring it to your students. Out there, someone makes these calls for real. In here, the worst that happens is a reload.
