Teaching with Basho AI: The Art of Haiku

A simple AI-powered app to practice poetic thinking

As educators, we worry whether AI is making students dumber. But is there a path to making our students smarter, more thoughtful?

The first question is legitimate. But in this post, I want to focus on the second. Because if we’re serious about education, we can’t just react to what we fear; we have to design toward what we want.

And what we want is smarter, more thoughtful learners. That’s not a fantasy—it’s a design challenge. The possibilities for building creative, AI-powered learning tools are vast. We’re no longer limited by technology. We’re limited only by imagination.

Today, I’ll be hosting a free online workshop to demonstrate how I built Basho AI—a simple “haiku challenge” app that gives students practice writing haikus in a playful, low-pressure environment. It’s a beginning. A prototype. A small example of how AI can be used not to replace thinking, but to invite it.

And here thinking is poetical; inviting stillness of mind.

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Japanese Masters

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Basho

Deep autumn —
my neighbor,
how does he live, I wonder?

"Bashō's Hermitage and Camellia Hill on the Kanda Aqueduct at Sekiguchi" from Hiroshige's One Hundred Famous Views of Edo

Buson

Tethered horse;
snow
in both stirrups.

A black hawk and two crows by Yosa Buson. Wikipedia.

Issa

Don’t worry, spiders,
I keep house
casually.

Issa's portrait drawn by Muramatsu Shunpo 1772-1858 (Issa Memorial Hall, Shinano, Nagano, Japan). Wikipedia.

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Basho AI App

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Basho AI App works like this.

1. The AI presents a haiku challenge or theme

2. The user is asked to compose a haiku in response

3. The AI offers comments and appreciation

4. The AI shares its own haiku on the same theme
   

If this sparks your curiosity, I invite you to join today’s free workshop. There’s much we can build with AI as a creative partner in learning.