What is artificial intelligence? How is artificial intelligence going to change our lives? "Alexa, play my favorite song! Alexa, shut the garage door!" Imagine a world in which you simply call out a request while sitting in your living room and have a small computer comply. Suddenly, the driving beat of your favorite song fills the air while in the distance you hear the grind of the garage door coming down. This scenario is no longer science fiction! Our world is becoming increasingly inhabited by machines that can talk to us, listen to us, perform as asked, and even solve problems with no direction from humans. A machine with artificial intelligence is one that can perceive its environment and change its computing and behavior to reflect that environment, while using tools at hand to solve problems or reach goals. In Artificial Intelligence: Thinking Machines and Smart Robots with Science Activities for Kids, one of four titles in the Technology for Today set, readers ages 10 to 15 learn the early definitions of AI and discover how these definitions, and the tests that are applied to determine whether a machine has AI or not, have changed as machines have grown increasingly competent in unexpected ways. Through a combination of science activities and student-paced learning, readers discover the AI machines of today and their uses in various fields, such as entertainment, the military, and health care. Includes 25 STEAM activities that encourage the development of important skills, including comparing and contrasting, looking for detailed evidence, making deductions, and applying critical analysis to a wide variety of media. What about the future? How will AI affect the way we understand and integrate with technology and with each other? How can AI improve our lives? Is there anything dangerous about AI? What are the ethical issues surrounding the use of AI? Essential questions such as these promote critical examination of issues from all sides, while primary sources and science-minded engineering activities, such as experimenting with the programs Sound Net and iNaturalist and making a model of a neural network, let readers have a blast learning about the age of thinking machines we're in right now. In the Technology for Today set, readers ages 10 to 15 explore the digital and tech landscapes of today and tomorrow through hands-on STEAM activities and compelling stories of how things work, who makes them work, and why. Titles in this set include Industrial Design: Why Smartphones Aren't Round and Other Mysteries with Science Activities for Kids; Big Data: Information in the Digital World with Science Activities for Kids; Projectile Science: The Physics Behind Kicking a Field Goal and Launching a Rocket with Science Activities for Kids; and Artificial Intelligence: Thinking Machines and Smart Robots with Science Activities for Kids. Nomad Press books integrate content with participation. Common Core State Standards, the Next Generation Science Standards, and STEM Education all place project-based learning as key building blocks in education. Combining content with inquiry-based projects stimulates learning and makes it active and alive. Nomad's unique approach simultaneously grounds kids in factual knowledge while allowing them the space to be curious, creative, and critical thinkers.

 

This book is part of a book series called Build It Yourself .

There are 122 pages in this book. This book was published 2018 by Nomad Press .

Angie Smibert is the author of several young adult books, including Memento Nora, The Forgetting Curve, and The Meme Plague, numerous nonfiction books for children, as well as many short stories for both adults and teens. She lives in Roanoke, Virginia. Dr. Christine Burillo-Kirch earned a Ph. D. in Microbiology & Immunology from the School of Medicine at UNC-Chapel Hill. She has conducted scientific research in bacteriology and immunology for 12 years and has been published in several peer-reviewed scientific journals. The author of Microbes: Discover an Unseen World from Nomad Press, Christine lives in Cary, North Carolina. Alexis Cornell is a graduate of The Center for Cartoon Studies. She lives in Northampton, Massachusetts.

This book has the following chapters:

Timeline

Intro: What Is Artificial Intelligence?

Chapter 1: The Hunt for Hal: Early Forms of AI

Take a Turing Test. (Can be done with 2-3 people)

Try a chatbot (like Cleverbot)

"Code" the steps to play and win at Tic-Tac-Toe

Make a model of a neural net out of playdough and toothpicks

Play Conway's "game of life" sim online or on paper

Chapter 2: Good Morning Alexis: AI Today

Play Go (or Chess) and write steps to play/win

Talk to Alexa (online version)

Write steps for a person to follow as if he/she were a robot

Explore Mars via simulated Curiosity rover (on JPL site)

Try a deep learning driven app (such as iNaturalist. org)

Watch video of life-like android such as Sophia (Hanson Robotics)

Chapter 3: AI in the Future

Watch or listen to AI created `art'

Experiment with Sound Net

Make a doodlebot

Do the original Three Wise Man test with friends

Chapter 4: Do We Need AI?

Watch DARPAs Robot Challenge and design own rescue robot

Design a robot to work alongside humans in space

Explore the uncanny valley and make your robotic face

Chapter 5: The Debate around AI

Read about debate between Mark Zuckerberg (founder of Facebook) and Elon Musk (founder of Tesla and SpaceX) about AI. Then come up with your own argument!

Chapter 6: AI in SciFi

Write your own laws of robotics /AI

Write a short story or poem artificial intelligence 50 years from now.

Watch 2001 (or another twentieth-century movie about AI/robots). How has our view of AI changed?

Glossary

Resources

Index