A3 How Machines Learn

How do we know if an AI is any good?

Stage: Creators, ages 9 to 11
Lessons: 7
You make: A mini AI project and a one-page “how it works and where it fails”

Before you start. You can do all of these yourself. Ask a grown-up before you look anything up online.

You don’t need a computer tool for these lessons. You will build a paper “machine” from cards, which works the same way. The Try page has a digital machine too.

Safety rules · Teacher and parent version of this course

Your lessons

Open a lesson. Tick the boxes as you go. Do one lesson at a time.

Lesson 1: Rules Versus LearningAbout 40 minutes

Get ready
Do it
Check yourself
Show a grown-up

Get ready

You need:

Paper
Pencil
8 safe things from around the kitchen or toy box (mugs, bowls, cups, plastic tubs)

Do it, step by step

Set a timer for 3 minutes. Write rules for telling a mug from a bowl. For example: “A mug has a handle.” “A bowl is wide.”
Put out your 8 objects (or draw 8 of them). Use only your rules to sort them. Write where your rules work and where they break.
Think of the tricky ones: a mug with no handle, a deep bowl, a cup that is both.
Now try learning from examples. Pick 4 objects as examples and write their labels. For each of the other objects, find the example it is most like and copy the label.
Which way gave more right answers? Which way copes better with a new object you did not see?
Think about email spam. Would you use rules or learning? Why?

Real AI test (with a grown-up): Spam test: rules or learning?

Optional, and a grown-up runs it. Under 13, the grown-up types and reads, and you direct and check. Read the real-AI guide first. About 25 minutes.

Why we do this. You compared rules with learning on paper. Now see which approach a real AI uses on a real job.

Prompt 1: Spam or not spam?

Here are 7 invented email subject lines. For each one, say SPAM or NOT SPAM and give one short reason. 1) WIN a FREE phone!!! Click now!!! 2) Your school trip form is due on Friday. 3) Congratulations!! You have been selected for a prize. Send your bank details. 4) Can we swap lunch plans to Thursday? 5) Last chance!!! 90% off all watches!!! 6) Your library book is ready to collect. 7) Free swim session this Saturday at the leisure centre.

Change only made-up parts in [brackets]. Never add a name, school, address, photo or anything private.

What to look for

First write 3 spam rules of your own (for example “has the word FREE”). Which of the 7 do your rules get wrong? Number 7 is a trap for the word FREE.
Did the AI get number 7 right? What reason did it give?
Are the AI’s reasons rules, or patterns from examples?

Write it down

Tool, prompt, what it said, what you checked, and whether it was right, wrong or not sure. Record sheet

Think about it. When would you pick rules? When would you pick learning?

Check yourself

What is the difference between a rule-based program and a learning model?

Open the answer

A rule-based program follows rules someone wrote. A learning model finds patterns in many examples.

Why do rules break?

Open the answer

Because the world has odd cases nobody thought to write a rule for.