Teaching AI to 2nd Graders – My most challenging audience yet

I spent most of the past year presenting AI topics to executives, engineers and data scientists from companies that are Google Cloud customers. Last week was a new type of challenging audience: 2nd graders.

I spoke to three different 2nd grade classes at my 7 year old daughter’s elementary school. For the event I created a presentation and an AI powered website for the kids to create their own stories in a safe manner. The kids seemed to have a great time, with one kid even shouting out “I love AI!”

In the end, I directed students interested in AI to first focus on education and computer fundamentals: reading, writing, math, critical thinking and using computers to create things (but without using AI). This, along with getting the kids excited about technology in general, is the most important takeaway.

I have included a link to the presentation and code for the kids storytelling website within the article.