Using AI to generate pub quiz questions

Let's be honest: nobody wants AI slop in their quiz. Those generic, soulless questions that feel like they were assembled by a committee of robots. But at the same time, there's no harm in getting a helping hand and some inspiration. The key is knowing when AI helps and when it hurts.

Where AI actually helps

Breaking through writer's block

Staring at a blank page trying to come up with 50 questions is hard. AI is genuinely good at generating a starting point. Ask it for "10 questions about 1980s music" and you'll have something to work with in seconds. You might not use any of them verbatim, but they'll get your brain moving.

Covering your blind spots

We all have topics we know nothing about. If you need a science round but failed GCSE chemistry, AI can help you fake it. Just make sure you verify the answers independently (more on that later).

Speed

Writing a full quiz from scratch takes hours. AI can cut that down significantly, especially for the first draft. That time is better spent on the parts that matter: editing, fact-checking, and adding your own flair.

Variety in question formats

AI is surprisingly good at rephrasing questions in different ways. "What year did X happen?" becomes "Put these events in chronological order" or "True or false: X happened before Y." This variety keeps quizzes interesting.

Where AI falls flat

Accuracy

This is the big one. AI models hallucinate. They state wrong facts with complete confidence. I've seen AI insist that a film came out in the wrong year, attribute quotes to the wrong people, and invent historical events that never happened.

Always check your answers. Wikipedia, official sources, multiple references. If you can't verify it, don't use it.

Originality

Ask any AI for pub quiz questions and you'll get the same tired classics. "What is the capital of Australia?" (Canberra, not Sydney). "How many sides does a hexagon have?" These questions have been asked a million times. Your regulars have heard them all.

The best quiz questions have personality. They reference local events, current news, or unexpected connections. AI doesn't know your audience or your venue.

Difficulty calibration

AI tends toward the middle. Questions are either too obvious or too obscure. Getting that perfect balance where teams feel challenged but not defeated requires human judgement. You know your crowd. AI doesn't.

Current events

AI models have knowledge cutoffs. They don't know what happened last week. For topical rounds about recent news, you're on your own. This is actually a good thing because current events rounds are often the most engaging, and they force you to do some actual research.

How to use AI well

Start broad, then narrow

Don't ask for "a pub quiz." Ask for specific things: "10 questions about European geography, focusing on rivers and mountains, medium difficulty." The more specific your prompt, the better the output.

Edit ruthlessly

Treat AI output as a first draft, not a finished product. Reword questions to sound more natural. Cut the boring ones. Add jokes or references that only make sense for your venue. Make it yours.

Fact-check everything

I can't stress this enough. Check every single answer. It takes time, but one wrong answer can undermine your entire quiz. Teams remember when they got robbed by a bad question.

Mix AI with original content

The best approach is hybrid. Use AI for some rounds and write others yourself. Your handcrafted questions will have more personality, and the AI ones will fill gaps in your knowledge.

Use it for structure, not just content

AI is good at suggesting round themes, balancing topics, and creating scoring systems. Ask it "what's a good structure for a 2-hour pub quiz" and you might get useful ideas even if you write all the questions yourself.

Tools that make this easier

If you use Claude Desktop, you can connect it directly to quizquiz.co. Instead of copying and pasting questions, Claude saves them straight to your account as a ready-to-use quiz. You still need to review and edit, but it removes a lot of the friction.

The workflow looks like this:

1. Ask Claude to generate questions on a topic
2. It creates a quiz on quizquiz.co
3. You open the edit link and refine the questions
4. Run it as a presentation at your quiz night

If you prefer ChatGPT, there's a custom GPT for quizquiz.co that works the same way.

The bottom line

AI is a tool, not a replacement for good quiz writing. Use it for inspiration, speed, and filling knowledge gaps. Don't use it as a crutch or an excuse to skip fact-checking.

The quizzes people remember aren't the ones with the most questions or the cleverest AI prompts. They're the ones where the host clearly put in effort, knew their audience, and created an atmosphere. AI can help you get there faster, but it can't do the important parts for you.

Use it wisely, edit heavily, and always check your facts. Your players deserve better than AI slop.