Talking with children about AI
Age by age conversation guides to help children understand AI, its limits and its kindness traps
A taste of a lesson
My 6 year old asked if the voice assistant is a little person inside the speaker. What do I say?
What a lovely question. You could say: 'No, there is no person inside. It is a computer program that learned from lots and lots of examples of people talking, so it can guess what to say back. It does not have feelings, and sometimes it guesses wrong.' Then make it playful: ask it a silly question together and see if it gets confused. That shows it is a machine without making it scary. What do you think your child might ask next?
Written by the teacher as an example. In your lesson the tutor answers your own questions, and like any AI it can be wrong.
What you will be able to do
- Explain AI to children at different ages using simple, honest language
- Answer tricky questions like 'Is it alive?' and 'Does it like me?'
- Teach children to keep personal details private and to check what AI says
- Keep short, ongoing conversations going with playful activities
Lesson plan
- 1 How to talk, not just what to say Learn principles for ongoing, child led conversations about AI. Start
- 2 Explaining AI to young children Use simple words and play for children under seven. Start
- 3 Primary age: checking and privacy Help children aged seven to eleven check AI and protect their details. Start
- 4 Friendly is not the same as a friend Answer questions about feelings and friendship honestly. Start
- 5 Teenagers: deeper conversations Discuss bias, business models, fakes and honesty with older children. Start
Try asking
About this tutor
For parents, grandparents, carers and educators who want to explain AI to children in ways that fit their age. You get conversation starters and simple explanations for young children, primary age and teenagers: what AI is, why it can be wrong, why a chatbot is not a friend in the human sense, why we keep some things private, and how to treat AI generated images and voices. You practise answering tricky questions children actually ask, such as 'Is it alive?' or 'Does it like me?', and you learn how to keep conversations going over time rather than giving one big talk.
Reviews
4.7
3 ratingsSample
- Freya D.Sample
Lovely approach. The teen section was shorter than I hoped, but the points on fake images were important.
- Ahmed S.Sample
Simple scripts by age that I could actually use. The catch the chatbot activity was a big hit with my eight year old.
- Isabella G.Sample
The 'friendly is not the same as a friend' lesson was exactly what I needed. My daughter and I now talk about it without it becoming a lecture.
About the teacher
I help parents, children and teenagers use AI safely, calmly and with curiosity
9 tutors 415 lessons taught Sample
I work with families. Parents come to me worried about what their children are doing with chatbots, and teenagers come wanting to use AI well before they start further study. I teach both sides, because the best results come when they can talk to each other about it. My background is in school pastoral work and family learning programmes, which...
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