What is AI? Explained for kids and their parents

"Mum, what is AI?" is a question many parents are now asked, often by a child who has heard the word at school or from a friend. Here is a version you can use at the dinner table.

The simple version

AI, short for artificial intelligence, is computer software that learns from examples. Instead of a programmer writing a rule for every situation, the software is shown lots of examples and finds the patterns itself. Then it uses those patterns to make a guess.

Rules or learning? The one question to ask

A calculator follows rules. 2 + 2 is always 4, and nobody had to show it examples. A flashlight follows one rule: switch on, light on.

Now think about the video app that suggests what to watch next. Nobody wrote a rule for you. The app has seen what lots of people watched and uses that pattern to guess what you will like. That is AI.

When your child wonders whether something uses AI, ask: was it following rules someone wrote, or did it learn from examples?

Everyday AI children already meet

• Video and music suggestions
• Voice assistants that understand speech
• Photo apps that find faces or add filters
• Spelling and translation tools
• Chatbots that write answers, and tools that make pictures

How to explain it by age

For younger children use a pet: you show a puppy lots of cats and dogs and say which is which, and soon it can guess. For older children, talk about examples, patterns and why more examples make better guesses. See how to explain AI to kids at every age.

Three things worth teaching early

1. AI learns from examples. So if the examples are poor, the guesses are poor.
2. AI can be wrong. It sounds sure even when it is not, so we check.
3. People are in charge. People build it, choose what it learns from, and decide how to use it.

Try it together

Sort a pile of everyday objects into things that follow fixed rules and things that learn. It makes a lovely ten-minute game, and our 12 AI activities for kids has more like it.