Artificial Intelligence (AI) is becoming increasingly important due to the rise in its systems and applications. The world is radically being changed by this technology as there is hardly anything in use that AI is not influencing. Our kids today are growing up surrounded by applications of AI, from chatbots to virtual assistants, search engines, language translation services, autonomous vehicles etc.
This upsurge in AI-enabled technology points to the fact that not only is AI here to stay but it is also the way of the future. It is therefore imperative to equip your kids with Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning skills. This way, they can understand how the technology works and be prepared for a future that will largely depend on it.
There are several “AI for kids” websites that can aid your child’s learning of AI. In this article, we have put together 10 of them, but first, let’s take you through an overview of AI.
What Is AI?
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is the ability of a computer, a computer-controlled robot, a machine or software to think like the human mind and perform tasks that generally require human intelligence. It involves creating algorithms that allow computers to learn from and make decisions, predictions or recommendations based on data rather than following only explicitly programmed instructions.
Tasks that AI is trained to perform include processing language, perception, learning, problem-solving, and decision-making. Subsets of AI include Machine Learning and Natural Language Processing.
Why Should Children Learn AI?
According to UNICEF, teaching AI to children is important because it is already a constant presence in their day-to-day activities. Kids are frequently exposed to AI-powered technologies like the video games that they play and apps that they interact with.
Teaching kids the principles of AI, its applications and its limitations at an early age is a great way to kickstart their critical thinking and prepare them to become intelligent consumers of technology.
More so, computer scientists have predicted that AI will be more prominent in the future than it is today. Thus, there is a high chance that AI will be connected to the future jobs of your kids as many jobs will need to understand how AI works to solve difficult problems.
By learning about AI at an early age, kids can better understand how to apply this tool to improve the world.
At What Age Can Children Learn AI?
There is no hard and fast rule for the appropriate age to introduce AI to kids. Children are generally believed to be quick learners. Some of the websites highlighted below have AI classes for children as young as 4.
However, for easier understanding, you can begin to teach your child about AI from age 5 with consistent parental or educator support.
Several online platforms that teach children about AI start with kids that are 8 years old and above. Studies show that by that age, the abstract thinking in kids develops and they can grasp concepts more easily at this age.
At this point, let’s get started with our list of “AI for kids” websites.
10 Websites and Online Resources Where Children Can Easily Learn AI
#1. Kubrio
Kubrio is an alternative education website that offers remote learning experiences on diverse subjects and the latest technologies for kids who are 8 to 18 years old. On this website, your kid has the privilege of learning at his or her own pace and can team up with young learners who share similar interests.
The site has an AI Prompt Engineering Lab that can teach your child to use the best online AI tools for content creation, like developing captivating stories, interactive games, professional-quality movies, engaging podcasts, catchy songs, aesthetic designs, and software.
An interesting thing about Kubrio is that AI learning is gamified. This makes the educational experience more fun for kids. There are quests which your child can select from, complete his or her creative challenge, build a portfolio and earn points and badges.
#2. Create and Learn
This website helps to introduce young minds to the latest technological advancements. Through their online classes, kids from elementary to secondary can understand the intriguing world of robots, artificial intelligence and machine learning.
Depending on your child’s class category, he or she can join AI classes such as AI Explorers, Create with ChatGPT, Hello Tech!, Free Intro to Python Coding, and AI Creators. The classes are live online, interactive, and practical. Apart from providing a broad overview of AI applications and technologies, your child also learns how AI can be applied to the latest technology, such as self-driving cars, face recognition, and games. As your child advances in learning, he or she will start building story projects and creating cool animation.
Create and Learn classes are unique because they all involve a machine learning activity where your child can program an AI game from start to finish. Also, the classes use an inquiry-based learning approach, so your child and other kids not only learn the “what”, but also the “how” and the “why.” This makes it easier to understand and your child can apply his or her learning in the future to real-world problems.
#3. Machine Learning for Kids
The next on this list of “AI for kids” websites is Machine Learning for Kids. This website introduces machine learning to kids by providing them with hands-on experiences for training machine learning systems and building things with them.
This educational website provides an easy-to-use guided environment for training machine learning models to recognise text, numbers, images, or sounds. Your child is taught about machine learning by being allowed to train a computer to recognise text, pictures, numbers or sounds.
By helping children create projects and build games with the machine learning models that children train, Machine Learning for Kids builds on existing efforts to introduce and teach coding to children.
#4. Cognimates
Cognimates is an open-source AI education platform where kids participate in innovative programming activities where they learn how to build games, program robots and train their own AI and machine-learning models. The platform originated as part of a research project at the MIT Media Lab to explore how children think about AI.
An exciting thing about cognimates is that some of the programming activities are moderated by embodied intelligent agents which in turn become learning companions to kids. The kids use a visual programming interface to control and customize an embodied intelligent agent. Through this, your child learns how to interact with a social robot and also program it, train it to remember and learn things over time, and have reflective conversations with their peers prompted by it.
The Cognimates platform was developed to make creating with AI easier and encourage kids to explore a topic that is generally viewed as difficult to learn or build with.
#5. Technovation
Among all the “AI for kids” websites listed in this article, Technovation is special, as it is a tech education programme strictly designed for girls. A global nonprofit runs the programme, and girls aged 8 to 18 years are equipped to become tech entrepreneurs, leaders, creators and problem-solvers in their communities by using AI.
Technovation uses a three-part learning model. The first is for a girl to identify problems in a community and develop a solution to the challenges. The next step is for her to build a team with fellow girls like herself, where they brainstorm and share the workload of bringing the solution to life. The final step in the learning model is to get the community involved by taking the Technovation solution to their schools, organizations and towns.
By participating in the Technovation Girls’ programme, your daughter gets to work in teams to code mobile applications and build tech products that address real-world problems that matter to her. She is also supported by volunteer mentors who will help keep her motivated and on track.
Young girls in this programme develop their collaboration, problem-solving and leadership skills.
#6. Zümi
Zümi is not a website but a kit for teaching kids about AI. It is the first autonomous educational car kit that teaches children the concept and basics of Artificial Intelligence and self-driving cars in a fun and engaging way. To teach your kids how to use Zümi, you can visit Robolink. There are step-by-step tutorials on how your child can program the car in a small environment and make the car improve over time. The more the car learns, the better it gets.
There are several things that the Zümi educational car can do. It can learn from its environment and adapt to new obstacles by being programmed to do the following: calculate and use the optimal route on the road, identify obstacles on the road and act accordingly, and recognise the movements of your hand to follow the directions you will indicate with. It can also be trained to recognise faces and that of your friends or family.
While the Zümi educational robot is a basic approach to learning AI, it helps kids learn code and programming.
#7. AI World School
AI World School (AIWS) is an online self-directed learning platform that provides transformative AI and coding technology education to kids, from preschool to secondary levels. It has an interactive STEM curriculum and an innovative online educational experience. Your child can learn about AI anywhere and anytime, in a lively and fun manner through creative coding.
AIWS makes coding simple for your child with easy-to-use age-appropriate block-based programming tools that bring AI projects to Life. Their coding curriculum combines design thinking and a play-based approach that enables young learners to explore magical, imaginary worlds, harmoniously blending with real-life and digital experiences. Your child will get to engage with a variety of active online STEM challenges, thus developing creative, innovative, and critical thinking skills.
Aside from exposing kids to AI, one advantage AIWS has over other “AI for kids” websites is its exclusive worldwide AI community. Through this community, your child can exchange ideas and knowledge with fellow kids, build projects together, and share their real-world applications, animations, stories and games globally.
#8. AIClub
AIClub specialises in helping kids learn, understand, and get excited about AI. They have expert facilitators who teach AI to kids from elementary to secondary school. The kids learn about AI and also build custom projects.
They use a unique approach to teaching AI known as the 4C’s of AI Literacy as highlighted below:
- Concepts: kids learn how AIs work, what they can do and how to build and interact with AI, all described to be intuitive at the level of the kid’s education and age
- Context: Kids learn how AIs in real life (like Alexa and Self Driving cars) work
- Capability: Kids learn how to build their AIs, with as much or as little code as they are ready for.
- Creativity: kids can bring their imagination to life and use AI to solve problems they care about through custom projects.
Their 4C approach helps kids build their first AI in their first class session with no coding or math prerequisites. As they progress, the kids learn deep and powerful skills.
AIClub also teaches Machine Learning for kids as well as other types of AI, like Natural Language Processing for understanding languages, and Deep Learning/Neural Networks for understanding images.
#9. Code.org
Code.org is a nonprofit education innovation committed to ensuring that kids in schools have the opportunity to learn computer science as part of their core education from preschool to secondary levels.
Code.org increases diversity in computer science by reaching students of all backgrounds at their skill levels, in their schools, and in ways that inspire them to keep learning. Many students on Code.org are from student groups historically underrepresented in computer science.
#10. MIT Scratch
Scratch is a programming language and an online community for kids where your child can learn to program and share interactive media such as digital stories, games, and animation with kids from all over the world. The online platform is designed, developed, and moderated by the Scratch Foundation, a nonprofit organisation.
As your child creates with Scratch, he or she learns to think creatively, work collaboratively, and reason systematically. Scratch also promotes computational thinking and problem-solving skills in kids.
The Scratch website is designed for young people ages 8 to 16; however, people of all ages can create and share with Scratch. There is also a simplified version of Scratch designed for young children between the ages of 5 to 7.
Scratch is always free and is available in more than 70 languages. Also, on the Scratch app, kids are allowed to create Scratch projects without an internet connection. You can download the Scratch app from their website or the app store on your device.
Conclusion
Artificial Intelligence is the way of the future. Therefore, one of the best gifts you can give your kids is ensuring that they know about this technology from an early age. You can explore any of our listed “AI for kids” websites to aid their learning.
It is worth noting that to be adept in AI and Machine Learning, coding knowledge is required. As such, if you want to really prepare your children for the future of work driven by AI and Machine Learning, consider enrolling them in a school that fully embeds coding into its curriculum.
