Making a Case for Artificial Intelligence Literacy Skills for School-Age Children

Whether for formal or informal learning or leisure, technological innovation is everywhere and seemingly always accessible through smartphones, tablets, or computers. Children are using AI-infused devices before entering formal schooling, creating a demand for fast-tracking the development and implementation of inclusive K-12 AI-Literacy curricula. Establishing AI-literacy programming (e.g., developing facility with technical understanding, critical appraisal of, and practical application of AI-tools) should become an educational priority. Empirical evidence suggests that learning about AI has a far reach, in that well designed, developmentally appropriate AI lessons offer children an opportunity to boost key cognitive skills that reciprocally enhance their educational outcomes. In the interest of amplifying the call for “AI4All” we discuss variation in the field of AI and in emerging AI-literacy curricula as it relates to reviewed research in development. Given the dynamic interplay between societal and personal forces that drive development, AI-literacy across the curriculum is a must to help prepare children for a future that will increasingly require adept technological knowledge and skills.