Preface

Artificial Intelligence (AI) has been one of the emerging technologies that has been frequently used in our daily life in different domains, including, education, medicine, finance, etc. However, even though AI is frequently used and mentioned in the media, there is still lack of AI understanding. Technological literacy is also very important now, because children are growing up in smart environments where they interact with intelligent devices, like robots and tablets. As children gain exposure and understanding of AI technology, their reasoning about these devices becomes more thoughtful and nuanced. Currently, educators lack information on how to teach teenagers AI, but there is a tremendous need for this to happen rapidly given this pandemic.

Several AI solutions (e.g., using robotics, face recognition, etc.) have been developed to combat several crises, including the current COVID-19 pandemic. It is therefore important to prepare the young generation for the next crisis/pandemic in the era of AI. The more knowledgeable the upcoming generation is of AI technologies, the more likely they are to develop smart solutions that will serve for the well-being of humans in crisis and maintain several vital activities, including economical, educational and health activities.

Based on the above background, this book introduces AI to children, between the age of 9 and 15, in an easy and fun way. It also presents vivid stories about some AI-based solutions that were developed to combat the pandemic. Furthermore, this book presents hands-on learning experience about AI by showing simple programming code that children could use and implement on the JupyterLab environment. JupyterLab is an open-source web-based interactive development environment that can support a wide range of workflows in data science, scientific computing, and machine learning. The book is structured according to the Five Big Ideas in AI developed by Computer Science Teachers Association (CSTA) for K-12 students, namely perception, representation and reasoning, learning, natural interaction and societal impact. The interactive AI-based version of this book, where readers can interact with the presented content and code (test, modify and download it), can be found on the Jupyter environment: http://yuanzhuo.bnu.edu.cn/article/653

It should be noted that this book can also be read by other people with different ages who may not have any background about AI. Parents and teachers can also use this book to introduce AI to their children or students respectively, and guide them to interact with the presented code online.