AI for Kids

What If Your First Teacher Was an AI? (Middle+)

• Amber Ivey (AI) • Season 2 • Episode 10

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Dipti Bhide, CEO and co-founder of LittleLit Kids AI, reveals how the first generation of AI-first children are learning to safely navigate AI through kid-friendly tools and experiences. She shares her journey from building tech for adults to creating the world's first all-in-one AI platform specifically designed for elementary and middle school children.

• An entire generation of children are learning AI before they learn Google search
• Little Lit AI was inspired by Dipti's experience teaching her neurodivergent son using personalized AI-generated math problems
• The "Whole Child AI" framework teaches kids not just how to use AI but what it is, how it works, and its limitations
• Children need to understand the difference between human and AI interaction for safety reasons
• AI literacy doesn't require coding knowledge - it's about communication skills
• Kids should learn AI basics before jumping into creative applications
• Understanding AI bias through hands-on experiments helps children develop critical thinking
• Teaching ethics means helping kids see AI as a creative tool, not a shortcut for cheating

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Amber Ivey:

Welcome to the AI for Kids podcast, where playtime, learning and creating collide bit by bit. Ever wonder how your phone recognizes your face. How does a game learn to get harder as you get better? This is AI. This podcast is designed for kids like you and your human parents, making the complex world of AI easy to understand and, most importantly, fun. So are you ready to unlock the mysteries of artificial intelligence? Subscribe and join us on AI for Kids. Hello everyone, welcome back to AI for Kids.

Amber Ivey:

Today's guest is someone who is on a mission to make sure kids don't just use AI, but actually understand it. We have Dipti Bhide, the CEO and co-founder of Little Lit AI it. We have Dipti Bhide, the CEO and co-founder of Little Lit AI, the world's first all-in-one AI platform. That is, guess what? Kids, just for you. She is an AI expert, an author, and has built tech that has been used by over half a billion people yes, I said billion, with a B but most importantly, she's here to show us how kids use AI safely, creatively and in a way that actually makes learning fun. Before we dive in, dipti, let's loosen up with a quick game, but I do also want you to say hi and just tell everyone who you are before we get started.

Dipti Bhide:

No, I think, Amber, you did a great job of introducing me and what we are all about. So my name is Dipti. I am the CEO of Little it AI for kids, just for kids, like you said.

Amber Ivey:

So let's do our quick round. To loosen things up, I'm going to give you some AI powered superpowers, just for today. You can only pick one. Which one are you choosing? And then let me know why. So the first one is you can choose an AI brain, where you can instantly learn anything, but only for 24 hours, so that superpower goes away. The second one is an AI sidekick, which is going to be a robot buddy that helps you with everything but only answers you in riddles. Okay, and then, lastly, it's an AI time machine. You can visit any time in the past or future, but only for 10 minutes. What are you choosing and why?

Dipti Bhide:

Can I choose all?

Amber Ivey:

That's the dream right. That's the dream right.

Dipti Bhide:

This is a tough one. I think the first one Okay, because, like I know that I can only learn something for 24 hours, you said. But imagine being an artist one day and a scientist another and flying a plane the next day and you know, like doing some amazing things for a day. That would be quite fun, right. And I think that's kind of the point of AI too is really extending our ability by adding AI superpowers. So I think I'd choose the first one and do a lot of different things.

Amber Ivey:

I love that. I love the idea of learning a bunch of different topics, like even in my own personal life. I just love reading and learning about things, so I love that one too. If I were to choose, this was hard for me too. Uh, I liked the learning one, but I may just visit the past or future and then tell myself to buy Bitcoin.

Dipti Bhide:

Ah, that's a good one. I was also thinking about it because I thought, wait, if I could go to the future, I can actually see if that whole thing about robots with us became real or not. So that would be interesting.

Amber Ivey:

I would go to my younger self and say Bitcoin, buy it, that's it, I'm out. That is true. You work at huge companies like Microsoft and Dell, but now you're focused on AI for kids. What made you switch from building tech for adults to helping little people or young people learn about AI?

Dipti Bhide:

I think I'm a mom and, like a lot of parents, the world changes when you become a parent and you become a lot more aware about the next generation, about young kids and the youth. And did you know? There is about 1.2 billion kids in the elementary and middle school ages in the world? So that's a lot, right. So I was this typical tech professional. We have been in AI and machine learning for a number of years now, before even GPT came along, and the whole time everybody is thinking about building stuff for adults. It's about their productivity, it's about their automation and it's all about the adults. And if you think about it, we are all building this. This is all going to be probably ready in five to 10 years in like a completely full sort of reality, and who's going to be in the workforce at that time? It's the kids of today. And so this big realization hit me as a mom that we need to build something for the young ones, for the kids, because they are going to be really the ones who are going to live in this world, which is going to be completely filled with AI, and they need to be equipped. So we call AI a life skill and I think that became a sort of obsession that, no, we need to really cater to the kids and there is very little out there that is doing that.

Dipti Bhide:

I mean, your podcast was one of the first ones that I came across, by the way that is even talking to kids about AI. A few YouTube videos here and there and a few cartoons. That was about it nada, nothing more. And so I tried doing it with my kids and I tried sort of teaching my 10 year old Chad GPT and he lasted like five minutes before the novelty wore off. He's like, okay, I'm gonna ask it to tell me a joke. And then there was a little bit of a Q&A and that was about it, and that sort of made me realize that there is this tremendous potential that AI has, even for kids, and it is a great equalizer. You don't need to be an adult to really have fun and use AI. But then there are no safe and child friendly tools. Like I said, gpt doesn't work. So that's why we decided to do this and really that's sort of the story of why I left doing adult software and then making it for kids.

Amber Ivey:

I absolutely love that because you're right, we were talking about before we hit record. I used to talk about AI for adults, just because my background's in data and saw this thing coming up, plus my initials are AI. So I was like, hey, let's make sure. I realized, like you, there was nothing for kids. High schoolers have more than like elementary and middle, but that elementary to middle group they're just like lacking. And, like you said, when AI is truly like infiltrated in the workforce, that's going to be their generation, yep. And how are we preparing them? I love that little lit. Ai is the first of its kind, right? Yep. So how did you come up with this exact idea and what was the hardest part about making it a reality? I know you talked about your son, him playing with at GPT, but how did you do this? What was hard about making it come to life?

Dipti Bhide:

Actually, he plays a central role in there as well, in that story as well. So this is actually a true story. I'm going to try to paint it like one because it actually happened. So GPDA had come out this is probably February or March after, right after it came out. So my son, who's 10 now?

Dipti Bhide:

He was about eight, eight and a half at that time and he is on the autism spectrum, so he is someone who loves certain things and can get obsessed by them, and then the other things are like super boring, right, right. So I was trying to get him to learn math and we were all talking. I was talking to his therapist and then I was talking to his teacher and we were like, oh, he is bored and he's not interested. And so I was like, have you tried using space for like giving him math sums using space? And they're like, yeah, maybe. And I just came home and I asked gpPD to make 10 math problems with space in it and once he came home, we actually sat down and I did see him really hooked and really do it and that was a big moment for how quickly AI could personalize and be used for a kid. And he kept doing that and then even with my younger kid, she is incredibly creative, and so we started doing mid journey had come out at that time and we started doing that, and so that's really what got us started into thinking that this whole experience for kids and AI needs to be about using AI for their interests and their needs.

Dipti Bhide:

I remember we had, like these post-it notes hundreds of them that we went through as a team trying to figure out what all can a kid do with AI.

Dipti Bhide:

They can make stickers, they can make a song, they can write a story, they can come up on recipe, they can use it to figure out what to do with their Legos and so it just exploded and our thinking exploded and it became much more personalized and kid specific and so, yeah, he really started it and this whole awareness that if a child is given ai, they could do amazing things.

Dipti Bhide:

The hardest part was this piece it's also the most funnest is how do you go out of a chat window of a gpt construct or a text string large language model or a dali or a mid-journey type of a construct into something that a kid actually cares about and is interested in, right and so to take AI and use it and apply it to features and games and activities and learning tools in little it which are fun for a kid that they can write a story, like I said, or they could create art is the hardest part that journey, but it has also been the most fun and rewarding one because it makes you really creative about what AI can do and, like you said, you know, adults could learn that too. It's not just Adults, please.

Amber Ivey:

Also, you can try these tools if you're scared. They're made for kids, so they'll work for you too.

Dipti Bhide:

Exactly. They're actually more fun than your own tools. There you go.

Amber Ivey:

And it's funny how you mentioned putting a kid on like a chat GBT. Like the UX on chat GBT I've said this about for adults too. It's not intuitive. It says ask a question. There's like sometimes there's like prompts that it shares with you. If you don't know this space to go in, there is intimidating. You may ask something basic, like you said a joke, but it doesn't guide you through the process and that's like the AI literacy piece. So I'm glad you're doing that and I'm glad you're doing it for kids, because they're going to be ones using this more than anyone else, exactly, yep. So you have a book, too, which is like amazing. It's called Whole Child AI and it takes a different approach to teaching AI. What does it mean to raise a healthy AI first citizen? What also does that mean?

Dipti Bhide:

Okay, yup, that's a lot to unpack there. So we talked about why we started this right. So the kids of today are going to grow up in a world where AI is going to be everywhere. My six-year-old is learning AI before she's learned how to do Google search, so that transition has happened already, right? So this is the first generation that's going to go out in the world as adults or even right now, and use AI organically in all aspects of their life. Ai is going to be present everywhere, and it already is.

Dipti Bhide:

This is not even future, like just a couple of years ago we used to talk about it in Future Tense. I have realized I still speak in future, but it's already fixed. So that's what I meant by the AI. First generation is this is that generation that's going to be AI first. The first technology they're going to touch and use for most of their work is going to be AI, and so we have to kind of think from that framework or that mental model to begin with.

Dipti Bhide:

So when we said, okay, let's do something for the kids, it was very clear to us that we can't just throw a tool up there for a child, make it more fun and engaging, but just throw it there, and throw them there and say, okay, go play. It has to be more than that, and as parents, as people in the community, we are all so worried about ethics when it comes to AI. We are worried about kids cheating, we are worried about safety, we are worried about privacy, we are worried about them losing critical things like creative skills or critical thinking, decision making skills, because they start overly relying on AI. So there is a whole bunch of anxieties, a whole bunch of fears that also come along with the reality not the option, but the reality that AI is going to be part of our kids lives, and so we looked at a way to address all of that, as opposed to give this child an AI tool and let them run with it oh yeah which was much more like throwing them in the deep end.

Dipti Bhide:

so we kind of really got inspired by Dr Bruce Perry, who has done a lot of work in whole child as a philosophy. So this is not new. Whole child is not new. We've just added the AI part to it. He had done a lot of work with trauma kids. That's how it started and talked about how a child can only learn in the context of their whole life and you cannot just think of them in a classroom setting learning a particular subject and not getting influenced by what's happening in their life or what's happening around them, their identity, their needs, their psychology and so on. And the same philosophy is what we have kind of realized that this is what AI education also needs.

Dipti Bhide:

So when you think about the whole child AI framework, it talks about not just how to use AI, but what is AI. It demystifies it for them. They understand how does AI work? Ai can make mistakes. What is the difference between human and human interaction versus human and AI interaction? Ai has bias. So I can go on and on, but there is so many different elements to it and the framework ties it all together and that's what then we wrote the book on and built Little it based on that.

Amber Ivey:

Ah, that's pretty quick. I'll make sure to link the book in the show notes Because, to your point, like the whole idea of whole child, whole family, those concepts have been around for a while. But applying that to AI is really interesting and it's just making me think how do we make sure the kid gets that whole experience with interacting with these tools? And I'm glad you said this because I've honestly it didn't hit me until I interviewed someone earlier last year where she was basically like the first interaction with the internet was literally AI. And I was like, oh my gosh, I don't have kids, but I have nieces and nephew, and my nieces use it all the time to ask questions.

Amber Ivey:

But it didn't click that they had never been on Google yet. And then even you saying it like, wow, yeah, that's their first search, that's their first Google is an AI and so they are more understanding of that's the first time. That's all they know. So imagine they're going to want that thing to get better and be able to work with them in a better way than we are. We're like, oh, yeah, I'll just ask it for movie times or something random. But they're like, no, I'm asking it for all the things how I use the internet.

Dipti Bhide:

My six-year-old asked me the other day Google Home, do you know Alexa? And I'm listening and Google Home is like, yeah, she's one of my many friends. And then then she said so who's better, you or alexa? I was like, oh my god, for them this is all organic. Did you realize that we talked about not doing google search, but instead using ai? Also not using it within the framework of a laptop, but a smart device. Yeah, so they're using it on their remotes. When talking to youtube, they're using the xs. So they're using it without even realizing, and that's why the whole child aspect comes into play.

Amber Ivey:

It is part of their immersive world oh yeah, and we need to test that. I'm glad you said that because I remember there was a kid here came to my house with his mom, probably about four I know he can't like fully type out things. He was playing Among Us and I'm like how are you talking to people? And he was using the voice to communicate and then, like how they're on YouTube without knowing how to read, they were able to navigate this world. So that's a good point of even though we enter this world very differently, they're already entering this world and they're going into it in a way that works for them and they're navigating it way better than I'm able to navigate even things like YouTube.

Dipti Bhide:

Yeah, and in Little it we always thought that we will build this for elementary and above. To be very honest, when we first started I felt even if I'm saying elementary I really mean maybe third or fourth grade right, I was discounting the ability of kids to adapt. And we have so many users on Little it who are six years old and they use the mics because we have mics everywhere. They just talk to it. They have skipped the writing altogether. Now they're trying to work on creative ways to incorporate the ability to spell and articulate beyond just speak. But it's empowering because this child doesn't have to wait to grow up to become very fluent in access information, become very fluent in helping to access information.

Amber Ivey:

The other thing I wanted to really quickly talk about. You're also a mom, which you've stated. How do your own kids feel about AI? Do they think it's cool or just a way to help with their homework, or?

Dipti Bhide:

maybe not at all. So they are naturally getting a front row seat to Little it. Call them my chief testing officers because they're always using it. So that's definitely made them a lot more, I would say, aware and enthusiastic users. But it's really rewarding for me to see that they are using it creatively. They're using it, you know, as a resource, so, for example. So see six. Now I noticed around five and a half.

Dipti Bhide:

There's two ways in Little it that kids can make a story. The young ones can do it by just clicking on some pictures like this fairy and this mouse. They can just do that and then AI will make a story for them. Now, that's a shortcut, right, doesn't require a lot of thinking. They are not necessarily doing a lot of creative work with it. But the other one is it coaches you through a series of questions like where is the story happening and what is the character Right. So I have actually seen that five and a half six itself.

Dipti Bhide:

I was surprised to see her preferring the second one over the first one. Yeah, because we wanted more agency, and she realized that in the first one I kind of just stabbed those two, three things, but then I makes the whole story and not what I was imagining inside my head, and that that sort of set in and she started realizing, if I want AI to do the story that I want or I am thinking in my head, then I'm going to use this one, because this one gives me more agency and more control over the narrative. And so that's just a small example, but they have become very creative. They're using AI the right way. I hope they'll continue doing that. But yeah, I think so far kind of not messing it up.

Amber Ivey:

And the reality is like how your daughter's interacting with that. A lot of other kids don't have that option and a lot of kids and parents and teachers don't really know how AI works. They just use it. What's one thing about AI that most people totally misunderstand? That you either learned or your kids have learned along the journey.

Dipti Bhide:

I think there's a couple of things I think the biggest one, I think, is that there's a lot of hype about AI. There's a lot of, you know, robots taking over, thinking of AI as an actual, tangible entity, identity like an actual thing. What everybody's missing is AI is not capable of independent thought. Ai is really collective intelligence.

Dipti Bhide:

This professor at Stanford who is looking for extraterrestrial organisms so completely different field, but I was watching his TED talk and he said the most amazing thing. He said AI is just a reflection of our collective intelligence. This is not a new species, because he was talking in that context and I think that's the one thing that people miss is you know, we are all collectively thinking, adding and contributing to this data that AI is training on, and then AI is narrating it back to us. So it's great to access the collective intelligence, but it's not range species and a new entity. So as long as we understand that, we're going to be fine. So maybe it's a little meta, but that's not range species and a new entity. So as long as we understand that, we're going to be fine. So maybe it's a little meta, but that's kind of the one thing that comes to my mind.

Amber Ivey:

I told you my background's in data, so the way you frame that makes total sense to me. And because, to your point, people are afraid of the Terminator or iRobots of the world, when in reality, like you said, is all of our collective humanity that got us to the point where we now can access all that information in a way that helps us make better decisions. I love that thought. Yeah, and one thing that does come up around, like the Terminator idea or the scary robots, is that a lot of people talk about using AI safely and ethically. What does that actually mean for kids using AI at home or in school?

Dipti Bhide:

Yeah, like a lot to unpack there. Okay, so let's talk about safety first. So there are so many different layers to it. We talked earlier about kids talking to these home devices or talking into the air with mics and things like that, and they're all talking back in a humanistic voice. And I say humanistic because it's not a human, but it's humanistic in an effort to create comfort.

Dipti Bhide:

But it can also confuse kids, even adults. But it can especially confuse kids. It can especially make them not understand the difference between an AI and a human, and it is so very important that we build that awareness from the get go, because otherwise they're going to share private, sensitive information with AI. They are going to listen to AI's advice on things that they shouldn't. They are going to probably end up using ai as a sounding board for things they should be talking to an actual adult or a human. So I think, when it comes to safety, start with is talk to our kids about differences between ai and human and how they can recognize that. I think conversations such as do you think this picture you're seeing in front of you is made by an AI or a human, being able to have those critical conversations with them so that they can start thinking actively and not just believe. You know, we lived in a world Amber where seeing was believing. We used to say that right, I'll leave it when I see it, that's not true not true anymore.

Dipti Bhide:

So now it's like you see it, but is it true? It's a level of complexity we are not even equipped to understand ourselves, so we need to teach them through tools, through scenarios, through experiments.

Dipti Bhide:

We do this fun thing where we show kids images and say which one is real. Let them kind of think through wait, so this lion or this lion? The eyes look blue, the eyes look brown. Let them really analyze. So that's safety right.

Dipti Bhide:

And then also talking about the fact that AI is just another technology and that it can make mistakes is another piece. So I think, starting with recognizing what is AI and then ensuring that AI is not there for your emotional needs AI is not there for you to share private and sensitive information with. Ai can make mistakes. So if you think ai is giving you something that you need a second opinion on, it's probably true and you should go to an adult and you should look at other sources of information. So we have to build systematically that rigor in a child's mind to to deal with AI, and it is a process but it's important. So that's how I think. I think about safety when I think about AI.

Dipti Bhide:

As far as the ethics are concerned, that's another completely, you know, big, relevant beast. I would kind of look at it a few ways. Ai is for creating, not for cheating. So understanding the difference, understanding that this is not for a copy-paste experience, this is a tool that can actually free you and really get you over your technical limitations to do stuff. So use it like that and use it to create, use it to extend your capabilities rather than just copy. And that's again experience that they need to be given, through not just preaching but doing the example I gave you earlier about ananya doing that story two different ways. In a way, she actually got over it herself. She realized ethics of using her own ideas versus just relying on ai to throw something at it. And that's the difference. Right, how they use it is a practice, a habit.

Dipti Bhide:

For example, in Little it, when a homework helper is asked what is 25 multiplied by 37? It's not give them an answer, it is give them steps. So it says good question, this is how you should solve it. These are the steps. Tell me if you need help. So sort of like really slowing the kids down. Or you want to write a story, I'm not going to write it for you, I'm going to say what's the character, where does it take place, and maybe being a sounding board as opposed to just giving your story. So building tools and giving them access to tools which teach them to really use their own thoughts is another way to inculcate that whole cheating, non non-cheating barrier.

Dipti Bhide:

And I think the last one I would touch on and not taking credit for work that is done with AI. I think it's a very complicated sort of ethical quagmire. I feel like I've had conversations with teachers and parents on both sides of the argument, one saying you know, they should absolutely write everything on their own, I don't want them to use AI. But the other, more realistic point of view, which I agree with as well, which is AI is there, it's a tool. They should use it. We used to use autocorrect and we got used to it, so we use Google. Right, if we had AI, we would have used AI. The boundary is to be able to say I made this piece of art with AI, I gave it my ideas, but I used it for execution. There's no shame in that and I think we need to all be with it as well, so that they won't feel the need to mask and lie. But then we have to build that habit that this is done with AI. This is done powered by AI, so that they can slowly start coexisting and co-creating and collaborating with AI, using it as a co-pilot. Like Microsoft says, tix is a very interesting idea.

Dipti Bhide:

I'll leave you with one last one, which is the good and bad use of AI, and with mid-schoolers and high schoolers slowly going into the world and using AI.

Dipti Bhide:

Ai is powerful. Ai can do amazing things, but then we have to decide whether we want to be the good guy or the bad guy. Right, kids need to understand how they can use ai for good, but not for bad, and how they can be safe. So one example I would like to give is one of those activities we do in little it where we ask them to design an action figure for a three-year-old using ai. And this is a tricky one, because what we are really trying to coach them is for a three-year-old. It needs to be non-violent, it needs to have a certain friendliness to it, it needs to be within the framework of a three-year-old's mind so that it doesn't scare them. But it is a superhero. So it's a balance. It's a balance of both, and that's a good way, for such examples and such techniques are eight ways for them to learn that they have to use AI, but within a framework of what's good for everybody else as well.

Amber Ivey:

That's really cool, cause even the idea of like the superhero and then giving the kid the prompt for a three-year-old like that is a way you teach a child how to think about AI, think about AI ethics, think about AI safety. There's pieces in there that they may not have upfront thought about, but once you walk them through that, you're helping them build that brain connection to say that's what it is and that's, I think, very valid and a good point. They may know some things that they've been taught, but how do you then reinforce that is through what you just said, and I think that's cool. So I'm 10 yeah, not really, but I'm 10 or middle schooler listening right now and I want to learn about ai. Where do I start?

Dipti Bhide:

so you're 10, but I'm thinking of what rohan would want, and I understand that the temptation at that time or a 10 for a 10, or 10 year, 12 year old would be to use ai to do some really cool things right. Create with AI, make some amazing visuals, make some music, make some animations or even make some games, so on and so forth. Also explore how AI can apply itself into the various parts of the world. But I would say everybody should start with the basics. So I think, understanding what is AI, how it works. You're a person from data, okay, so you told AI to make a monkey with a banana. How did AI actually make it? It's not magic.

Dipti Bhide:

It has looked at 100,000 pictures of monkeys and bananas and it is taking the words that you gave it and it's using that to make decisions for creating the shapes and the colors and the strokes, to make decisions for creating the shapes and the colors and the strokes to make that monkey. So having that basic understanding and first starting there is super important anything. When we learn swimming, we don't just start diving. We first learn how to breathe and how to glide, and so we have to take through our steps. So, even though, by age and by excitement, a 10 year old or a 12 year old might be really wanting to run, we need to slow them down to understand the basics, also understand the ethics and the safety concerns around it before they really start going deep.

Amber Ivey:

I love how you related it to like swimming or anything else. We learned Even learning how to drive a car. Whatever it is you're doing, there are steps, there's reading, there's learning, there's. Then you do it, and I think it's a slight misstep because we don't have AI literacy in I don't think in elementary. Some schools are adopting that stuff. We have English and we don't have, like, ai literacy, so kids are often learning about it through some app or through just exploring. So thank you for saying that, cause I think that's a really good point.

Dipti Bhide:

Don't run, run. You have plenty of time to learn this thing.

Amber Ivey:

Learn the basics, and I think that makes total sense to me safety first and awareness first and then jump into it. Oh yeah, ai can still. Even if I'm a 10 year old just learning the basics. Right, it can still feel super complicated. You teach it in a way that makes sense for kids. What's the easiest way, once I've learned the basics, to start playing around with AI and actually understand it?

Dipti Bhide:

I think you said it. I think the easiest way is by doing Okay, like really exploring and experimenting and combining it with theory. So we thought a lot about how we will give these tools to kids in.

Dipti Bhide:

Little it. And this was our answer to your question as well, which is how do we do it? You combine learning AI with doing AI or using it, and then it becomes a total, sort of complete experience. So think about it as you're saying, okay, ai has memory, retains a lot of information across everything, and you're learning this concept and you're becoming aware as a child that AI has memory. If, right after that, you tell the child, ok, now use this AI chatbot, and why don't you ask it? Any question that comes to your mind and you know, maybe it's a science question, or maybe it's about a person or a historical figure and AI is giving you that answer, now you're connecting the dots right away. In the moment. You're saying, OK, ai has memory, it access this memory to give me this information. So this is how those two pieces come together.

Dipti Bhide:

So I think constantly combining small bite-sized concepts with experiments, exploration, really trying and testing it. Another good example I would give you because I really love this one is understanding ai's bias. So we have all these different biases that ai can have right. My favorite example is talking about gender bias within the ai construct and saying that a lot of data that was used to train. Ai is historical and has a lot of points of views from men, but doesn't have enough representation of women in the data, which means that AI can then make mistakes, and we need to be aware of that.

Dipti Bhide:

Now, that's a nice thing to understand, but immediately after that, there is a challenge where kids are told to make community figures like firefighters and asking AI to create stickers or images of firefighters, and then observing whether AI is actually giving them a woman and a man, or just sticking to your stereotypical man firefighter and then teaching them okay. So now, this time around, say a woman firefighter and train that AI tool to give you a more equitable representation. So again, an example of learning and doing so. As long as we keep combining these two, I think it becomes real and it becomes tangible, and immediately, and it's the same for any learning we are just applying it to AI.

Amber Ivey:

That's so cool. The other thing that is interesting as well was around like cat and dogs. So I tried to get AI to prompt a cat chasing a dog. It would not, because normally dogs chase cats and all the images were dogs chasing cats. Yep, it refused to. So I have a cat that chases dogs, so I wanted an image of that. Oh wow, but because of the bias or the unequal representation of that data, it will not create it. The most I got was like a cat next to a dog, but other than that it wouldn't do it.

Dipti Bhide:

So I think that's another awareness that we do try to build it as well, that AI isn't static, it's a living, breathing thing. The more people ask cats to chase dogs, it will eventually get it right. Yeah, it's an activity, and I think we should get kids involved in this movement as well.

Amber Ivey:

It's an activity and I think we should get kids involved in this movement as well. I agree 100%. Speaking of kids, do you think kids should learn how to code before they use or learn AI, or can they start with AI first?

Dipti Bhide:

Oh, absolutely, they can start with AI first. Okay, I also think there are two very disparate concepts which get confused very easily amongst everybody, even teachers. I was just talking to an educator the just the other day and I said we have AI literacy curriculum for kids and you know, teachers can engage in school settings. And she's like okay, but then do we need a tech teacher for it? I was like, no, you need, like your English teacher or any teacher who is teaching kids. And then it's like but isn't it coding? And it's not. It is not coding.

Dipti Bhide:

A one in a hundred, let's say, kid, wants to code because they want to be technology skill sets and that's what they're interested in. Exactly all of hundred are going to use ai. Right, so learning ai has nothing to do with coding. Oh yeah, and in fact it is a lot to do with communication. Most of our AI is through language models. Even visual models are based on language, and so it's all about being able to talk to AI and prompt AI what we say prompt engineering, really just communicating with AI and that's a skill that you can totally learn and should learn ASAP, at whatever age, and it's going to do with coding.

Amber Ivey:

I think I would say it like that I'm glad you said that For kids listening to this you can go back to. The P is for prompting episode. It'd be live by the time this one goes. I'm glad you said that because often it's like do you need to be able to code to help to influence it? But, to your point, as long as you're using it, you're also helping to train those models and, like you said, a hundred percent of us will be using AI. It's going to be a very small amount of coders and even that AI is coding and that's also a whole nother conversation of the day.

Amber Ivey:

That's a reality. That's actually happening.

Dipti Bhide:

Yeah, yesterday I heard Salesforce stopping to hire new coders now because AI is like what?

Amber Ivey:

Yeah, we never thought, that would happen. But yeah, it's who are some of your favorite people or resources that kids and parents can follow to learn more about AI. I've started asking that question this season in particular because I want kids to know, or parents to know, who should they be following, of course, other than yourself like we'll make sure they connect with you, but who else should they be following? Who are you following? I follow you, thank you.

Dipti Bhide:

Yeah, I do. I think the ABC is a great resource, to be honest. Thank you so much. Also, I feel there are people like Sal Khan, who is a competitor, but I would still name him Because I do think they are good thought leaders, thinking how things are really sort of unfolding in the education space or tech space, so I think that's a good one to follow as well. But really for me, it's about sort of looking at all sources available to say what are the latest research theses on it. There are institutes like Anne-Sophie Serif who basically work on AI and its ethical considerations when it comes to kids. So there's a lot of people who are focusing on specific aspects. So I think I read up on those a lot.

Amber Ivey:

We'll definitely drop LittleLit in the chat, as well as Khan Academy or Khanmigo in the chat, for folks to learn more about that as well. If you could tell every kid one thing about AI before they start using it, what would it be?

Dipti Bhide:

Tough one. I think AI can make decisions and choices, unlike other technology, and we have to be very aware of that. It's not a washing machine that you press a button and only then it decides I'm gonna watch, and this is the temperature sensors aside. That's a little okay. My analogy fell apart, but, uh, it has a little bit of ai. But I think it's important that kids understand that ai is a technology that makes decisions, will take control over things, and so it's important that we are aware of that.

Dipti Bhide:

It's important that we take all the decisions and choices made by AI with a pinch of salt, use our own critical thinking and human agency for acting on it or before sort of taking it and accepting it. I think it's a little abstract, but I think again, through a lot of touch and feel experiments and I think it's a little abstract but I think, again, through a lot of touch and feel experiments and exploration it can definitely be something kids can understand deeply that you know this is an ai choice, like we talked about those stickers here of firefighters. It's ai's choice to make it that man, and ai didn't choose to make it a woman or a particular you know of color and, and that's the choice, and so we have to challenge those choices when needed, and we have to accept them and not. But we have to understand that AI makes choices, that the algorithm's nature is to make choices and decisions.

Amber Ivey:

Dipti, this has been amazing. You're making AI sound fun, safe, super exciting for kids and hopefully their parents and teachers too. But before we go, where can parents and teachers find Little AI to share with their kids, and do you have anything special to share for our listeners?

Dipti Bhide:

Yeah, all right, so you can go to wwwlittleitai. It's easy enough to remember the site. You can go and register there for your child or your class. You can get a membership which covers all aspects. So it covers AI curriculum, so teaches kids all about AI through various fun adventures in this city called Starlight. So it's kind of fun and cool. It has AI tutors so kids can use it for personalized learning and homework, and it has an AI arcade where they can do amazingly fun stuff. They can play with each other, they can create things, they can fun stuff, they can play with each other, they can create things, they can make music. They can do a whole bunch of stuff. So that's kind of what LittleLit offers and that's where you will get it.

Dipti Bhide:

I do have a code for your listeners for 15% off, so I will Yay, ai for Kids 15. So just the name of your podcast in 15. For teachers out there that are your listeners, if they want to do a ai for kids certification, then that's another thing that we offer. And for your listeners, because right now we're offering it for teachers for free if their school's signing up, but for your listeners if some teachers just want to do it for their own learning. You can send your form and if they fill it, then we can offer the certification free as well.

Amber Ivey:

I love that. Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you. I'll make sure and include all that in the show notes and, for folks who are interested, please make sure to feel free to reach out and use the code. Thank you for being here, dipti. We can't wait to see how LittleNet AI continues to help become the next AI creators of the future. Thank you for joining us. Thank you, this was fun. Same here. Bye-bye, bye. Thank you for joining us as we explore the fascinating world of artificial intelligence. Don't keep this adventure to yourself. Download it, share it with your friends and let everyone else in on the fun. Subscribe wherever you get your podcasts or on YouTube. See you next time on AI for Kids.

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