Enlightening the Future Generation About Artificial Intelligence
By David Huang, James Carter, Ethan Chen
In today’s world, Artificial Intelligence (AI) is all around us. Whether you’re using navigation apps such as Google Maps or talking to your nearby smart assistant, it is undeniable that the age of AI is impacting the lives of millions with this new technology. As Dr. Kai-Fu Lee, a Computer Scientist & AI expert, states “AI is going to change the world more than anything in the history of mankind. More than electricity.” That’s why it is important for our future generations to be learning about some fundamentals of AI. At Winchester Thurston Summer Camp, we did just that with Ready AI!
Ready AI held a one week long summer camp session at Winchester Thurston from July 12th — 16th reviewing the fundamentals of AI. The five day stretch not only allowed the kids to get a better understanding of what AI is, but it allowed them to do it in a way that they had fun. The session started with lectures to spark curiosity within the kids. This also gave the kids a better background on AI before diving into the coding portion of the class. Items we would review would include the five big ideas of AI (Perception, Representation & Reasoning, Machine Learning, Natural Interactions, Social Impact), modern day impacts of AI (Change in job markets, Different uses in various fields), and most importantly five important applications of AI (Object Identification, Object Manipulation, Facial Recognition, Speech Recognition, Speech Generation). All instruction throughout the curriculum would prove important for upcoming projects the students would conduct.
Much of our week would revolve around experimenting with the application known as Calypso. Calypso allowed the kids to code concepts of AI into a robot known as Cozmo.
Cozmo is an artificially intelligent little robot whose brain uses machine learning and gets smarter as you use it. This represents some core ideas of AI. The kids not only get to have fun with the robot but learn from it too. Using the Calypso program, kids coded various fundamental AI functions into Cozmo.
On the first day, the kids were able to see how various technologies are able to identify objects and faces. This was a prominent example of modern day technology utilizing AI. The kids were introduced to scenarios in our everyday lives on how this application of AI is used, from complexities of identification within a self-driving car to simple facial recognition among Snapchat filters. Furthermore, the kids were able to apply this knowledge into experimentation with Cozmo. Cozmo showed the kids first hand how powerful current recognition technology can be for both objects and faces. They were able to make Cozmo move towards any of the provided cubes simply by making it see it! Concluding the day, kids saved their faces onto Cozmo, which allowed Cozmo to read their identities. Ultimately, the day revealed powerful ways AI is able to identify objects and people.
Though AI has amazing abilities in being able to scan and read various objects, it is also important that it knows how to manipulate them. On the second day, the kids would be introduced to how AI robotics could interact with their surrounding environments. It is amazing how far such technology has come. AI robotics are able to grasp objects, open doors, serve customers, play chess, and much more! All of this allows for an amazing amount of efficiency within our daily lives. The kids were able to view a simple example of how AI could manipulate objects by exploring Cozmo. They were able to program Cozmo to identify a cube, and he’d move to pick it up. Cozmo could maneuver the cube wherever it was needed, thus adding to the real world application of robotics interacting with objects.
Our final applications that we reviewed included Speech Recognition and Speech Generation. This was quite common among the kids as many of them had already experimented with AI assistants, such as Siri or Echo, all of which used this technology in order to respond to humans. It was very important for the kids to understand how this technology worked as it becomes more prominent throughout the world. AI speech recognition converts the soundwaves it hears around it into a format that it can understand. Once the kids understood this, they had fun formatting it within their Cozmo robot. Eventually, they were able to code Cozmo to be able to hold diverse conversations with it. Speech recognition is truly a marvel in recent advancements. The ability to give voice commands to a machine has always been tough due to the training that the AI requires, however it seems to get better each year. This future generation will have access to highly responsive technology at their command!
In the final days, we wrapped up our concepts and allowed the students to commit to a final project. It was amazing to see the ideas that all the students had, many of which could give a positive impact on society. The kids were able to apply all of what they learned into this project. Their creativity was truly amazing with some of the advanced algorithms they produced. Additionally, David Touretzky, a Computer Science professor from Carnegie Mellon University, made a visit to give more of his professional input for the kids. We showcase below some of the amazing projects that were designed.
Though we only had five days to learn and work with AI, we accomplished so much. The kids not only walked away with a greater internal understanding of how AI works and what it is, but they also discussed the future impacts of this technology. Many controversial topics already exist within the idea, such as whether or not jobs will be replaced, or if AI will be dangerously weaponized. We feel that these are very important discussions that will eventually lead to decisions in AI technology. Hopefully the right choices will be made and AI can be used for more good than harm.
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