‘Are you for real?’ by Layla Browne-Moorby, age 15, Year 10, Penwortham Girls’ High School

You answer every question

before I even finish asking.

You can write stories,

solve problems,

and sound just like a person.

But you’re not.

You don’t laugh at dumb jokes,

get nervous before a speech,

or know what it feels like

to lose someone you care about.

You can write about happiness,

fear, or heartbreak,

but can you actually feel them?

Or are they just words

put together in the right order?

Sometimes it’s hard to tell

What’s real anymore.

Pictures can be fake.

Videos can be edited.

Words can be written

by someone who never existed.

It makes me wonder-

If we stop thinking for ourselves,

stop asking questions,

and let a machine do everything…

what happens to us?

Maybe AI isn’t the problem.

Maybe the real question

Is how we choose to use it.

So, before we believe everything

we see on a screen,

we should stop and ask,

Are you for real?