This resource includes a set of activities, teacher guides, assessments, materials, and more to assist educators in teaching about the ethics of artificial intelligence. These activities were developed at the MIT Media Lab to meet a growing need for children to understand artificial intelligence, its impact on society, and how they might shape the future of AI.

This curriculum was designed and tested for middle school students (approximately grades 5th-8th). Most activities are unplugged and only require the materials included in this document, although unplugged modifications are suggested for the activities which require computer access.

Physical movement is one of the most engaging ways to interact with AI systems. Dancing with AI is a week-long workshop curriculum in which students conceptualize, design, build, and reflect on interactive physical-movement-based multimedia experiences. Students will learn to build interactive AI projects using two new Scratch Extension tools developed for this curriculum.

The goal of this curriculum is to engage students with interactive lessons and projects, and to have them think critically about AI and natural interaction. Throughout this course, students will have open-ended discussions on questions such as:

- How do we compare and contrast forms of representation?
- How do we interact with other humans vs. how do we interact with AI?
- What are forms of bias that can arise from improperly trained machine learning models, and how can we remediate those biases?
- What kind of projects can you create with interactive AI that will benefit your community?

These questions will allow students to reflect on their own abilities as consumers and creators of interactive AI, and have them think critically about the ways it can help and harm society.

How to Train Your Robot was originally developed as an extension of the AI + Ethics for Middle School curriculum. In its current form, How to Train Your Robot provides a full, one-week of activities that allow middle school students to explore artificial intelligence and ethics through hands-on activities.

In this course, students participate in a range of hot-topic discussions and hands-on, creative activities to learn about how artificial intelligence is impacting society today. Students will design robot companions to solve real-world problems and use machine learning to make them intelligent. At the end of the course, you will have designed your very own robot companion to share with the world.

Helps young people learn to think creatively, reason systematically, and work collaboratively — essential skills for life in the 21st century.

Everyone will be impacted by AI in daily life and in the workplaces of the future. It is critical for all students to have fundamental knowledge of AI and to understand AI’s potential for good and harm. The Daily-AI program will jumpstart your readiness for AI and give you the tools you need to prepare for the AI-enabled world.

The Daily-AI workshop, designed by MIT educators and experienced facilitators, features hands-on and computer-based activities on AI concepts, ethical issues in AI, creative expression using AI, and how AI relates to your future. You will experience training and using machine learning to make predictions, investigate bias in machine learning applications, use generative adversarial networks to create novel works of art, and learn to recognize the AI you interact with daily and in the world around you.

This curriculum is currently being piloted through NSF EAGER Grant 2022502. This is a joint venture between the Personal Robots Group at the MIT Media Lab, MIT STEP Lab, and Boston College.

Contents:
Unit 0: What is AI?
- What is AI
- Algorithms as Opinions
- Ethical Matrix
- Decision Trees
- Investigating Bias
Unit 1: Supervised Machine Learning
- Introduction to Supervised Machine Learning
- Neural Networks
- Classifying AI vs. Generating AI
Unit 2: GANs
- What are GANs?
- Generator vs. Discriminator
- Unanticipated Consequences of Technology
- AI Generated Art
- What are Deepfakes?
- Spread of Misinformation
- Generate a Story
Unit 3: AI + My Future
- Environmental Impact of AI
- Redesign YouTube
- Careers in AI