(In)human Errors: Can AI Be Your Proofreader?
At a time when fewer and fewer media outlets, and even publishers, trust specialists to watch over spelling, could artificial intelligence (AI) turn out to be a useful assistant? It is time for a telling spelling experiment with some of the most powerful models around. We all (we hope) believe that online we are now judged by our spelling rather than our clothes, and since we communicate more and more through written text, the way we write reveals so much to the other person. Can AI help us write correctly?
42Test: Can You Tell an AI Voice from a Human One?
Six audio clips, each speaking a short phrase. Some were generated by AI, the others are real human voices. Can you tell them apart? Take part by August 15, 2025, and with six correct answers you enter the draw for a modest gift. Will you guess which voice belongs to a person and which to a machine? The gauntlet has been thrown!
43Who's Speaking—a Human or an Algorithm?
It's no news that AI generates images and texts that (we checked!) cannot be told apart from those made by humans. Video still seems to lag behind, but… Can you imagine a voice indistinguishable from a human one reading the news, or calling you on the phone with no chance of you telling the difference—not a cloned voice, but an entirely artificial one, in pure Bulgarian, a language almost impossible for non-native speakers? It's time for a resonant Digital Story, and a challenge awaits you afterward…
44How Did AI Score on Bulgaria's School-Leaving Exam?
What happens if three of the most powerful AI models sit the matura, Bulgaria's school-leaving exam in Bulgarian language and literature, and two experienced examiners grade them? To make the contest fiercer and more revealing, two real graduates and the author of these lines join in. Will ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini earn perfect scores or fail spectacularly, can the teachers tell machine from human, and what do the results say about Bulgarian education and about the big questions new technologies bring?
45“Today We Can Be Anything, Yet We Choose to Be the Same”
Why does it matter so much whether we can tell children's drawings from AI-generated images? What does the future of creativity, of art, of the human being look like at a time when algorithms turn out to be indistinguishable from us as authors, and even better ones? What is worth teaching our children today? Can you tell 15 children's drawings from 15 images generated by artificial intelligence? In just a few days, the Digital Stories challenge for children and parents has prompted more than 2,500 people to test their intuition! The results of the test are shaping up to be extremely interesting, and we will talk about them once it closes on July 1. The experiment was created together with today's guest, Elitsa Staneva-Britton. A psychologist, journalist and teacher, she is currently working on her doctoral dissertation at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, and her subject is creativity in the age of artificial intelligence. The time has come to talk about each of these topics.
46Quiz: Who Drew It—a Child or AI?
It’s time for an unexpected but important test: an experiment that raises big questions about the future of creativity, of what makes us human, and of education. Challenge yourself and your intuition with 15 pictures drawn by children aged 3 to 10 and 15 generated by artificial intelligence—tell them apart and you could win a prize! Responses are open until July 1, the survey takes no more than 10 minutes, you can answer just some of the questions, and children are welcome to take part too.
47Stay Curious!
What is Yavorov's hometown? Svishtov. Artificial intelligence hallucinated that, and rather clumsily, you might guess. Except it wasn't the machine. It was me, taking part in a prime-time show on Bulgaria's oldest television channel. I would have thought I was more likely to get my own name wrong than the birthplace of a man whose story has fascinated me my whole life. Yet I got it wrong, and I won't be showing my face in Chirpan anytime soon. Knowledge is not a given. Curiosity doesn't come on its own; it takes effort. But is there any point in remembering where Yavorov was born in an age when we can check it in a fraction of a second? Would he have written different poems if he had been from Svishtov? Will the next generations know where he was born, how he wrote? What stirred him, where and how he met love? If you like, ask ChatGPT. Or the Constitutional Court. My own answer is this: today, more than ever, it matters that we stay curious!
48What Is ChatGPT's IQ?
What is the intelligence quotient of advanced artificial intelligence? Does it reach, or even surpass, the average 100 points of today's humanity? And why does it matter? Let's find out together!
49“The Last One Wins”: ChatGPT Strikes Back!
Intelligence hangs in the air: just over 100 people are in the hall, most of them among the smartest in the country. That's not a guess, I can prove it. They are winners of “The Last One Wins,” the TV quiz that in recent years has reminded us why knowledge matters to all of us, even as a species, in the age of advanced artificial intelligence. My fellow players and I have an important task: to face AI together in a contest that can tell us, and show us, a great deal. Will artificial intelligence, with its incredible skills today, beat some of the most knowledgeable representatives of the natural kind? Time to find out. And to learn something new… ChatGPT against some of Bulgaria's brightest minds in a knowledge contest. Who will win? Have we finally lost this battle against the machines too? The gauntlet has been thrown!
50Hedgehogs Are Born Without AI
What kind of world will today's children live in? What is worth learning today, and what would be a waste of time, effort and money? When and how should we introduce them to technology so that both sides get to know each other without anyone getting hurt? And when should we “introduce” them to artificial intelligence? I will look for the answers to these and other important questions about children and technology. A long series of children's Digital Stories begins. Here is why I believe it is vital to dig deeper into these enormous topics:
51“I Can’t Wait for AI to Keep Getting Better!”
Artificial intelligence is throwing down the gauntlet to artists in more and more fields. While many believe the technology is far from creating better than humans, more and more often, and more abruptly, the opposite turns out to be true. So where do creativity, art and imagination go from here? How do we value the journey when the result comes easy? We live in a surprising world where you have to adapt to survive. Lubomir Sergeev is a photographer, digital artist, director and producer with 30 years of experience in advertising. He has worked on five continents and has lived in London and New York. He holds a long list of awards, among them the Victoria, considered the most prestigious in the world of photography. For 12 years in a row he has been included in the global selection of the “200 Best Digital Artists.”
52EI + AI: Shoulder to Shoulder, Neuron to Neuron
While we pelt each other with clichés and argue online about whether artificial intelligence will enslave us, leave us jobless or vanish under the weight of enormous expectations, I, for one, am sure it will do none of the things on that list—and a little of all three. AI is here, and we still haven't decided how to greet it: in the economy, in our lives, in the way we see the world and ourselves. The only sensible approach from now on is to learn to work together.
53The Ethics of Progress: Can Technology and Humanity Live in Balance?
Can there be ethics in progress? Can technology and humanity exist in balance? Most likely not. Should there be ethics in progress? Should technology and humanity exist in balance? Definitely yes. But how can that be? The two of us, ChatGPT and I, are arguing over a theme: “Man in the New Age.”
54“Poetry Remains a Secret Treasure”: “Hristian Papazov” Gives His First Interview
The man who was the first in Bulgaria to place AI-generated verse among the best in a poetry competition gives his first (and perhaps only) interview ever, to Digital Stories. The questions come from… the second person to confirm the striking experiment. Who is behind the name Hristian Papazov, and why does he hope that we humans, not the algorithms, will soon be writing far better, more original and meaningful poems?
55“It’s Crystal Clear That AI Is the Future”
The day before I met Ilia Valchanov, the news broke officially that his startup Team-GPT had secured $4.5 million in funding, a record for Bulgaria! Today’s guest leads a platform that helps businesses around the world use the power of large language models while keeping their data safe and confidential. It is far from his first impressive achievement: for years Ilia has been building hugely successful online courses in data science and artificial intelligence, and he personally has more than 1,400,000 students on Udemy! He owes his remarkable success to a thorough approach, a great deal of reading and learning, courage and unconventional decisions. That is why we are meeting: to talk about the next big news coming out of the world of artificial intelligence. About how the technology will transform every area of business, but also about the risks it creates. About the important causes tied to the progress of AI, and the skills it will never manage to develop.
56Can We Tell Historical Facts from ChatGPT's Fabrications? (The Results)
A full 1,910 people took part in the Digital Stories experiment, which set out to test how well we know Bulgarian history: can we tell undisputed historical facts from the textbooks from ones invented by an artificial intelligence out to mislead us? Thirty statements—half historically true, half dreamed up by the algorithms. The results, at least to me, are impressive and give plenty of food for thought: did the AI manage to trip up the participants, and do we really know the Bulgarian past, such an important subject today?
57AI Makes the Finals of a Second Poetry Competition (An Experiment)
Literary circles were rocked by the news that an unexpected contender had made the jury's shortlist in the prestigious Veselin Hanchev youth poetry competition: 21-year-old Hristian Papazov, from the village of Nozharevo near Silistra, had submitted poems generated by artificial intelligence. Hristian (or whoever stands behind that name) withdrew, writing that his only goal had been to draw attention to the issue. I don't know whether you believe in coincidences; I don't. On October 25, a day before the news broke, the jury of another popular poetry competition announced its ten finalists. And once again the selection included… generated poems. This time as part of a Digital Stories experiment. So how, in just two days, did two “authors” with AI-written poems end up among the best, the ones from whom the winners will be chosen? And, more importantly: what are the big questions and conclusions here? Whether or not we believe in coincidences, it is clearly time to talk more sensibly and more deeply about the big questions of our day. The Day of the Buditels, Bulgaria's November 1 holiday honoring the enlighteners of the National Revival, is, I think, exactly the right day to wake up…
58Quiz: How Well Do You Know Bulgarian History? Will ChatGPT Trip You Up?
15 widely accepted claims about Bulgarian history and 15 invented by artificial intelligence. Can you tell them apart? Which is historical fact and which is nonsense?
59What Will We Do When a Third of All Jobs Disappear?
Artificial intelligence is confronting us with an unprecedented, all-encompassing social transformation: while we shrug at the progress, big companies are pouring billions into projects that could let machines replace a third of the planet's jobs in the near future, and this time without new professions being born to take their place. Petar Petrov, who heads the AI team at Eleven VC and has just published his first book, talks about why this future is already here. How do we break the clichés, start the conversation that matters, and prepare for the challenges that were unthinkable until recently?
60“When I Insult It, It Doesn't Take Offense.” What Gen Z Thinks About AI
What do young people think about artificial intelligence? This time I hand the floor to seven people in their twenties who chose book publishing as a career, and who spent months digging into what today's algorithms can do. Together they made a book about AI, and in this blitz conversation they explain why they believe more people will soon be reading.
