All eleven friends together with the AI cloud

Get Ready For AI

An interactive guide about AI for kids aged 7⁠–⁠12

15 short chapters with games and quizzes. Find out how AI works, one idea at a time.

📘 Also as a free book (PDF): download it here

Meet the gang

Each of these eleven friends shows you their own topic!

Katerina Katerina

Age 9.5, loves experiments, maths & making stuff!

“I want AI to help me create a robot that will be my friendly lab assistant for my experiments.”

Rebecca Rebecca

Age 10, loves drawing & music

“Can an AI help me write a song that still sounds like me?”

Anish Anish

Age 7.5, maths whiz & cricket fan

“If an AI watched every cricket match ever, could it learn to bowl the perfect ball?”

Ronan Ronan

Age 11, nature lover & explorer

“I’d love an AI that can tell me which bird is singing in the forest.”

Bembe Bembe

Age 10, football star & inventor

“I want to invent a robot goalkeeper, but one I can still beat!”

Fleur Fleur

Age 9, language lover & dancer

“I want an AI that helps me say hello to all my friends in their own language.”

Ling Ling

Age 12, science geek & reader

“Before I believe an AI, I check its answer in a real book.”

Nallah Nallah

Age 11, chef & storyteller

“I’d ask an AI to invent a new recipe, and then I’d taste it myself to see if it’s really good!”

Nicola Nicola

Age 13, guitar player & street-art fan

“I’d ask an AI to find the chords to any song, but I’ll always play it myself.”

Tilly Tilly

Age 7, collects old coins

“Can AI help me recognise the coins where the letters are not legible? It will help me with organising my coin collection!”

Robert Robert

Age 12, gamer

“I want AI to help create more difficult platforms in my games so I learn new tricks.”

GR4AI, the cloud

Hi, I’m GR4AI! My name is short for Get Ready 4 AI. The 4 is a quick way of writing “for”. I’m your guide all the way through: I read things out for you and pop up when there’s an answer to reveal. The kids in the gang each show you their own topic.

How this guide works

Every chapter has three steps:

  • Tap Listen and GR4AI, the AI cloud, reads it out for you.
  • Every part you finish gets a green ✓. At the very end, try the Final Challenge and get your certificate!
  • A word with a dotted line is explained: tap it, and it goes into your word collection.
  • Even better with a grown-up nearby: big questions are more fun to talk about together. If you are 7 or 8, read along with a grown-up. From about 9, you can explore on your own.
  • To jump straight to a chapter, tap the Chapters button at the top of the screen.
01

Moving from the physical environment to the digital world

Before we explain what Artificial Intelligence (also known as AI) is, we need to understand how it is related to our everyday world.

Our everyday world is also called the physical environment, where we live, breathe, eat, learn and play. Artificial Intelligence works in the digital world.

Let's see how these two are different!

Physical world

Digital world

PhysicalInformation: sharing of ideas, thoughts and knowledge using speech, drawings, singing
DigitalData: sharing of ideas, thoughts and knowledge using electronic files
PhysicalBrain: a human processor of ideas, thoughts and knowledge to help us understand the physical world and create new knowledge
DigitalComputer: a digital processor of data to help us make sense of complex numbers
PhysicalSentences/Words/Numbers: the way of information sharing in the physical world
DigitalCode/Numbers: the way of data sharing in the digital world
PhysicalHuman Intelligence: the human ability to learn, understand and innovate
DigitalArtificial Intelligence: a human-made ability to learn from data, find patterns and help create new things
Katerina

Hi, my name is Katerina.

Where do we live, eat, learn and play?

Tap the answer you think is right.

02

What is AI?

Rebecca

Hi, my name is Rebecca.

AI stands for Artificial Intelligence. It means making computers that can learn and solve some problems, in a different way from us!

🤔 So what IS Artificial Intelligence?

AI is a type of computer programme that can learn from information (we call it DATA), spot patterns, make decisions, and get better with more training, without being told every single step to follow. It is not a real brain: think of it as a pattern-finder made of maths and computer code!

🧠 Human Brain

  • Learns from EXPERIENCE
  • Recognises faces
  • Understands language
  • Understands context
  • Makes decisions
  • Gets tired & needs sleep

💻 AI Computer

  • Learns from DATA
  • Recognises faces too!
  • Works with language, in its own way
  • Can miss what you really mean
  • Makes some choices much faster
  • Never sleeps, but needs electricity!

📈 How AI Learns

  1. 📊 Collect Data
  2. 🏷️ Label Data
  3. 🏋️ Train AI Model
  4. ✅ Test AI Model
  5. 🚀 Deploy!
  6. 🔄 Improve

💡 Fun fact!

The word "Artificial" means "made by humans" and "Intelligence" means "the ability to learn and understand." Together = smart tools made by people, to help us learn and understand better!

📊 AI's journey wasn't straight!

👆 Grab the little car and drive it along the curve!

The "Gartner Hype Cycle" shows how new tech goes through peaks of excitement, then doubt, and then the point where it becomes truly useful, solving real problems and doing good for people. AI has gone up and down this curve more than once! Some AI is really useful today. Other AI is still on the bumpy part. Look at the curve above. Can you find the bit where everyone gets excited?

03

How AI Actually Learns

Tilly

Hi, my name is Tilly.

Imagine teaching a toddler to recognise a cat. You show them LOTS of cats.

AI also learns from lots of examples. But it does not understand things like a child does: it finds patterns. This is called MACHINE LEARNING.

📊 1. Collect Data

  • Millions of examples (photos, words, numbers)

🏷️ 2. Label Data

  • Humans mark what each example IS

🏋️ 3. Train AI Model

✅ 4. Test AI Model

  • Try it on NEW data it hasn't seen YET

🚀 5. Deploy!

  • Release it for real-world use

🔄 6. Improve

  • Fix mistakes, retrain and improve

🧪 Experiment: train a pretend AI

AI learns from examples. If the examples are one-sided, it can learn the wrong clue. That’s why people test it on NEW data and keep improving it.

3 Ways AI Learns:

👩‍🏫 Supervised Learning

  • Teacher shows examples and correct answers.
  • Like flashcards!
  • Example: photos labelled “cat” or “dog”, until the AI can tell them apart.

🔍 Unsupervised Learning

  • AI finds patterns without being told what to look for.
  • Like sorting a box of building bricks by colour, without anyone telling you how!
  • Example: a music app notices which songs people often play together.

🎮 Reinforcement Learning

  • AI tries things, gets rewarded for good moves.
  • Like levelling up in a video game!
  • Example: a robot learns to walk by trying again and again, and gets points when it doesn’t fall.

🧠 Neural Networks: How Deep Learning Works

Your brain has billions of connected neurons that help you learn. Artificial neural networks are only very loosely inspired by this. They are made of artificial neurons connected in layers, and they learn from the information we give them.

Glowing brain cells (neurons) connected to each other by thin branches

This is how the brain works to transfer information.

Brain cells send tiny electric signals to their neighbours, so messages can zoom around!

This is how AI works to process data.

More layers = 'DEEP LEARNING', a kind of AI that is used a lot today!

INPUT LAYER → HIDDEN LAYERS → OUTPUT LAYER
Tilly

Tilly again. Quick question for you!

In supervised learning, how does the AI learn?

Tap the answer you think is right.

A circuit board shaped like a brain, representing how AI works.
04

How computers work

Artificial intelligence is a type of intelligence created by humans in the digital world to help automate tasks in the physical environment.

Robert

Hi, my name is Robert.

Before AI, let's understand computers! A computer has HARDWARE (the physical parts) and SOFTWARE (the programmes).

🔧

Hardware

  • CPU: the brain
  • RAM: short memory
  • Storage: long memory
  • Screen, keyboard, mouse, speakers
💾

Software

  • Operating system (Windows / Mac / Linux)
  • Apps & programmes
  • The CODE that tells hardware what to do
🔢

Binary & Bits

  • Computers store all data as 0s and 1s
  • 1 bit = one 0 or 1
  • 8 bits = 1 byte
  • Your photo = millions of bits!

💡 Experiment: be the computer

1 bit = one 0 or 1, and 8 bits = 1 byte. Your photo = millions of bits!

How we talk to computers:

Your words, pictures, sounds → Numbers (data) → Binary (0s & 1s) → Electricity On/Off

Each arrow means “gets turned into”. What you type, say or show gets turned into numbers, the numbers into 0s and 1s, and those into tiny bursts of electricity: on, off, on, off.

🙈 AI makes mistakes too!

  • Hallucinations AI sometimes makes up facts that sound true but aren't! Always double-check.

  • Maths errors AI can miscalculate even simple sums. Always check its sums!

  • Image confusion Image AI can mix up chihuahuas and blueberry muffins! (Yes, really!)

  • Spelling slip-ups AI can spell words incorrectly. Check everything!

Photo grid of chihuahua faces and blueberry muffins that look surprisingly alike
Chihuahua or muffin? Can you tell which is which? Photo: Karen Zack (@teenybiscuit)
Robert

Robert again. Here’s a fun one!

Which of these is SOFTWARE?

Tap the answer you think is right.

05

What can AI do?

What can AI do?

Do big calculations very quickly Find patterns in data Recognise faces from a crowd Help forecast the weather Help doctors spot illness in x-rays and MRI scans Design beautiful drawings very quickly Help scientists search for new medicines Support space exploration Find shortcuts for travel

What can AI not do?

Decide on its own what happens to a patient Stop a war Know which new idea is really good Really feel happy or sad Be a friend to someone Do an operation without a doctor in charge Hug someone or hold their hand Raise a baby Decide for us what is right and wrong Really mean it when it says sorry

AI can help kids by:

Fixing spellings

Making reading easier

Helping doctors find illnesses sooner

Writing stories

Making movies

Creating new toys

Developing new ideas

Helping make the internet safer

Ling

Hi, I'm Ling. This one's tricky!

Which of these is on the list of things AI can NOT do?

Tap the answer you think is right.

06

Real AI Jobs Around the World!

Meet 9 experts. They are made up, but their jobs are real! Tap a pin to meet them.

World map
07

AI in Daily Life

Ronan

Hi, it’s Ronan!

AI is in LOTS of places around you! Let's explore where you can find it in real life.

👆 Tap a card to flip it over.

🏥

Healthcare

Healthcare

Helps doctors spot cancer in scans, helps scientists look for new medicines, warns early about flu outbreaks, helps doctors with paperwork.

Healthcare illustration
🚗

Transport

Transport

Self-driving cars in some cities, smarter traffic lights, route planning, train safety checks.

Transport illustration
🎬

Entertainment

Entertainment

Netflix recommends shows, Spotify finds your songs, video game opponents, movie special effects.

Entertainment illustration
📱

Smartphones

Smartphones

Face unlock on phones, voice assistants (Siri!), smart autocorrect, photo improvements.

Smartphones illustration
⛅

Weather

Weather

Better weather forecasts, hurricane tracking, climate monitoring, early flood warnings.

Weather illustration
🍕

Food

Food

Robot pizza makers, food waste reduction, recipe suggestions, crop monitoring.

Food illustration

💡 Fun fact!

In 2025, the big computer buildings built mainly for AI used more electricity than the whole of Sweden! Teaching one big AI (called Llama 3.1) made about 8,900 tonnes of CO₂. A car would have to drive around the Earth about 900 times to make that much! That's why scientists are working on "green AI"!

Slide the switch left and right!

Your turn: which AI do you use?

Tap every kind of AI you have used. Your ticks stay on this device.

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Having trouble seeing the wall? Open it in a new tab instead.

👨‍👩‍👧 A note for parents & guardians

Please post on your child’s behalf. We only ever ask for a first name, age and country, never a last name, email or exact location. Every post is checked by a real person before it appears publicly, so nothing goes live automatically.

Please leave out anything that could identify your child: no usernames or gamer tags, no school names, no screenshots of accounts or chats.

Want a post removed? Just let us know.

08

AI in Fashion, Space & More!

Fleur

Hi, Fleur here!

AI even designs clothes and helps us explore space! The list of what it can do keeps growing.

👆 Tap a card to flip it over.

👗

Fashion

Fashion

  • Designs new clothes
  • Recommends your style
  • Virtual fitting rooms
  • Predicts next trends
Fashion illustration
🌳

Environment

Environment

Environment illustration
🎨

Art & Music

Art & Music

  • Creates paintings
  • Composes music
  • Writes stories
  • Generates videos
Art & Music illustration
📚

Education

Education

  • Personalised lessons
  • Instant feedback
  • Language translation
  • Answers some of your questions
  • Teachers are still the best ones to help you learn and grow
Education illustration
🪐

Space

Space

  • Helps find new planets
  • Guides Mars rovers
  • Analyses star data
  • Plans rocket routes
Space illustration
🛡️

Defence

Defence

  • Spots cyber attacks
  • Monitors borders
  • Analyses threats
  • Helps keep us safe
  • But only people can make peace
Defence illustration
Fleur

Fleur again. Did you read all the cards?

AI can give personalised lessons. Who are still the best ones to help you learn and grow?

Tap the answer you think is right.

09

The Good Side of AI

Nicola

This is Nicola. Are you enjoying it so far?

AI can do so many AMAZING things to help people and make the world a better place. Let me show you some!

❤️ Helps Save Lives

  • Helps spot cancer early
  • Helps find rare diseases sooner
  • Speeds up medicine research
  • Helps watch over patients day and night

🤝 Helps Many People

  • Reads text aloud for blind people
  • Turns talking into written words
  • Helps speech difficulties
  • Makes tech accessible

🌍 Helps the Planet

🎓 Better Learning

  • Explains in YOUR way
  • Gives instant feedback
  • Translates many languages
  • Works at your own pace

🔬 Science Booster

⏰ Saves Time

  • Does repetitive tasks
  • Answers questions fast
  • Organises information
  • Frees humans to be creative!
Nicola

Nicola again. Now a question for you!

How can AI help people who are blind?

Tap the answer you think is right.

10

The Tricky Side of AI

Katerina

Back to me, Katerina!

AI is powerful, but that means we need to be careful! Here are some real risks we need to think about and talk about.

🎭 Deepfakes

  • AI can make fake videos
  • Real people saying fake things
  • Can spread wrong information
  • ALWAYS check sources!

🔒 Privacy

  • Some AI learns from what YOU share
  • Facial recognition in public
  • Apps may track what you do online
  • Think before you share!

⚖️ Unfair AI

  • Trained on biased data
  • Can treat people unfairly
  • May ignore some groups
  • Fairness must be designed in

💼 Job Changes

  • Some jobs may disappear
  • New jobs may appear too!
  • Learning skills still matters
  • Humans + AI can work together

📰 Fake News

  • AI can write false things that sound true
  • Fake photos and videos
  • Hard to spot sometimes
  • Even kids’ voices in a podcast can be made by AI
  • Check multiple sources!

😴 Over-Reliance

  • It's easy to let AI do all the work
  • We might stop thinking
  • Always use your brain too!
  • Try it yourself first, then ask AI, then compare!
  • AI helps, YOU decide!

🤔 What would you do?

Pause before you answer, keep private things private, check another way, and talk to a grown-up you trust.

Katerina

Katerina again.

What can a deepfake show?

Tap the answer you think is right.

11

Responsible AI: Using It Wisely

Nicola

Hi, Nicola here!

Ethics means thinking about what is RIGHT and FAIR. Good AI must be fair, safe, honest and helpful to EVERYONE, not just some people!

The 5 Principles of Responsible AI

Keep scrolling to see all five!

⚖️ Fairness AI should treat every person fairly, whatever their skin colour, gender, age or where they come from.
🔍 Transparency We should be able to find out HOW AI makes its decisions. Experts are still working on it!
🛡️ Safety AI must not hurt people. It needs to be tested carefully before being used in real life.
🔒 Privacy AI should protect your personal data and not share your information without permission.
🧑‍💻 Human Control Humans must ALWAYS be in charge. AI is a tool. People should make the final important decisions.

💻 Staying safe when using AI online

Never share your full name, address, school or phone number with ANY AI chatbot.

Don't upload photos of yourself or your friends to AI websites without a parent's permission.

If AI says something that feels wrong or scary, tell a trusted adult immediately.

Remember: AI is NOT a friend, it's a tool. It doesn't have feelings or truly care about you.

Nicola

Nicola again. One more question!

What does the principle of Transparency mean?

Tap the answer you think is right.

12

AI Careers: Your Future!

Nallah

My name is Nallah, and I want to talk to you about the work you might do one day!

A lot of grown-ups are worried that AI will take their jobs away.

Jobs will change, but the problems stay. So ask yourself: which problem would I love to solve? Helping sick people? Protecting animals? Saving our planet?

Some jobs of the future haven't even been invented yet! Many of them will probably involve AI. Here are some exciting careers waiting for YOU!

↕ Keep scrolling to deal all 9 careers, then tap a card to open it

🩺

AI Doctor

AI Doctor illustration

AI Doctor

Uses AI to help spot diseases in scans and choose the best treatment for each patient.

Study: Medicine + Computer Science

🎮

AI Game Designer

AI Game Designer illustration

AI Game Designer

Creates intelligent characters and worlds in video games that learn and adapt to players.

Study: Computing + Art + Maths

🌍

AI Climate Scientist

AI Climate Scientist illustration

AI Climate Scientist

Builds AI models to predict climate change and find solutions to save our planet.

Study: Science + Geography + Maths

⚖️

AI Ethics Lawyer

AI Ethics Lawyer illustration

AI Ethics Lawyer

Makes sure AI is used fairly and legally. Fights for people's rights in the digital world.

Study: Law + Technology + Ethics

🍽️

AI Food Engineer

AI Food Engineer illustration

AI Food Engineer

Designs AI systems that create new foods, reduce waste and feed more people sustainably.

Study: Biology + Food Science + Computing

👩‍🏫

AI Teacher

AI Teacher illustration

AI Teacher

Creates personalised AI learning tools that help every student learn in their own best way.

Study: Education + Psychology + Computing

🎨

AI Artist

AI Artist illustration

AI Artist

Combines human creativity with AI tools to make breathtaking art, music and stories.

Study: Art + Creative Computing

🏦

AI Banker

AI Banker illustration

AI Banker

Builds AI that spots a stolen card in a split second and keeps people’s money safe.

Study: Maths + Economics + Computer Science

🛡️

AI Safety Engineer

AI Safety Engineer illustration

AI Safety Engineer

Tests AI systems to find problems before they cause harm. The guardians of safe AI.

Study: Engineering + Computing + Ethics

13

What Should I Study?

Katerina

Hi, it’s Katerina again!

You don't have to decide NOW, but it's never too early to start building brilliant skills! Here's what will help you work with AI.

👆 Tap a card to flip it over

🔢

Maths

Maths illustration

Maths

Algebra & statistics, problem solving, logical thinking: the language of AI.

💻

Computing

Computing illustration

Computing

Basic coding (Scratch!), how computers work, data and databases, app & game making.

🔬

Science

Science illustration

Science

How the natural world works, experiments & evidence, biology for AI doctors, physics for engineers.

🗣️

Languages

Languages illustration

Languages

Communication skills, AI translation tools, writing clearly, understanding culture.

🎨

Art & Design

Art & Design illustration

Art & Design

Creative thinking, visual problem solving, UI/UX design, AI art and music.

📈

Economics

Economics illustration

Economics

How money, work and prices fit together: microeconomics, macroeconomics, economic theories and applied maths.

🧩

Psychology

Psychology illustration

Psychology

Why people do what they do: motivation, how we make decisions, how crowds behave, and how to help in a crisis.

📖

Humanities

Humanities illustration

Humanities

Ethics and philosophy, history of technology, geography for climate AI, understanding society.

Katerina

Katerina again! Here’s a quick one!

What did I say about choosing what to study?

Tap the answer you think is right.

14

The Future of AI

Anish

Hi, I’m Anish! Let’s look into the future!

The future with AI could be absolutely incredible, but only if WE make good choices now about how to use it responsibly.

Here are some ideas people are working on. Not all of them will come true!

🔮 Today or maybe one day?

Ideas for the future are possibilities, not promises. Whether they come true depends on people: “only if WE make good choices now”.

Anish

Anish again. Your turn!

What did I say a great future with AI depends on?

Tap the answer you think is right.

15

Our Responsibility: Keeping AI Good

Bembe

Hi, I’m Bembe!

AI doesn't have a heart or conscience. WE do. That means humans must always be in charge of making sure AI is used for good.

What Makes a Responsible AI User?

🧠 Think Critically Don't believe everything AI tells you. Always ask: is this true? Is this fair?
📢 Speak Up If you see AI being used unfairly or dangerously, tell a trusted adult. Your voice matters!
📚 Keep Learning AI is always changing. Curious, always-learning people will lead the AI future.
🤝 Think of Others Does this AI help everyone equally? What about people with disabilities, or without computers?
⚖️ Know Your Rights In many places, you have the right to know when AI is used on you. You can always ask questions about it!

🔍 Understanding AI mistakes is part of being responsible

AI can be wrong, biased, or even dangerous if not checked by humans. When you spot an AI mistake and tell someone, you help make it better! Good AI systems have HUMANS checking the AI's work, especially when it really matters. This is called "Human-in-the-Loop", and that human could be YOU one day!

Bembe

Bembe again. Last one!

What does “Human-in-the-Loop” mean?

Tap the answer you think is right.

The eleven friends and the AI cloud in their classroom

AI is a tool. A brilliant one, but a tool. You are the one who decides what it is for.

🏆

Final Challenge

Answer 10 quick questions to see how much you've learned!

How this quiz works

You'll get 10 questions, one at a time. Pick an answer, see if you were right, then press "Next question" when you're ready. There's only one correct answer for each question. Your final score and medal are revealed at the very end!

Before you go: one tip from each of us!

Katerina Katerina

My tip for you

“Be curious like a scientist! Ask AI questions, but test the answers yourself.”

Rebecca Rebecca

My tip for you

“Use AI for ideas, but keep making things with your own hands. Your style is yours!”

Anish Anish

My tip for you

“Practise, practise, practise! AI learns from lots of examples, and so can you.”

Ronan Ronan

My tip for you

“Go outside and look closely. AI can help protect nature, but only if we care about it first.”

Bembe Bembe

My tip for you

“Invent something! Start small, try it, fix it, and try again.”

Fleur Fleur

My tip for you

“Say hello to someone new in their language. AI can help, but a smile works everywhere.”

Ling Ling

My tip for you

“Never believe the first answer. Check it in a book or ask a grown-up.”

Nallah Nallah

My tip for you

“Taste before you trust! When AI suggests something, think about it before you use it.”

Nicola Nicola

My tip for you

“Keep your private things private: your name, address and photos belong to you.”

Tilly Tilly

My tip for you

“Collect what you learn, like I collect coins. Every new word from this guide is a treasure!”

Robert Robert

My tip for you

“Take breaks from screens. The best level is still the real world!”

📖

Glossary

Handy definitions for all the AI words you've met on this journey.

Accessible
Made so that everybody can use it, including people who cannot see, hear or move the way most people do.
Alzheimer’s disease
An illness that slowly damages the brain, usually in older people, so that remembering and thinking get harder. AI can help doctors spot it earlier.
Artificial Intelligence (AI)
Computer programmes made by people that can learn from data, find patterns and help solve problems. Very fast, but not a real brain.
Autocorrect
The thing on a phone or computer that changes what you typed into what it thinks you meant. That is an AI guessing, and it guesses wrong often enough to be funny.
Bias
When AI treats some people unfairly because of things like their gender, their ethnicity or race (where their family comes from and the colour of their skin), their religion or their ability (a disability). Often it is because the examples it learned from were unfair too. The computer does not notice by itself, so people need to check.
Binary
The computer’s own alphabet, made of just two signs: 0 and 1. Every photo, song and message is stored as a very long line of them.
Bot
A small program that does one job over and over on its own: answering messages, posting, checking a page. Short for "robot", but there is nothing to touch.
Carbon dioxide (CO₂)
A gas that goes into the air whenever we burn fuel: in cars, planes, power stations. Too much of it warms the whole planet up.
ChatGPT
A famous AI chatbot that can answer questions, write stories and hold conversations by predicting likely next words.
CPU
The “brain” chip of a computer. It follows instructions one after another, very, very fast, so everything you ask the computer to do gets done.
Creativity
Making something that was not there before: a story, a tune, a way out of a problem. AI can rearrange what it has seen; deciding what is worth making is yours.
Curiosity
Wanting to know how something works, and asking until you do. It is the one thing every good scientist, engineer and artist has in common.
CV
The sheet of paper grown-ups send when they want a job: what they have studied, what they have done, what they are good at.
Cyber attack
When someone tries to break into computers to steal, damage or block what is on them. AI can help spot the attempt early.
Data
All the information an AI learns from: photos, words, numbers, sounds. AI learns from data and works with it. Good data helps make a good AI; messy or unfair data can make a messy or unfair one.
Deepfake
A fake video, photo or voice recording made by AI that looks or sounds real, but isn't. Always double-check!
Deforestation
Cutting down a forest faster than it can grow back. Satellites and AI can see it happening from space, almost as it happens.
Diagnosis
Working out which illness someone actually has. A machine can spot something odd in a picture; naming the illness and deciding what to do is a doctor’s job.
Disability
Something about a person’s body or mind that makes parts of the world harder to use, like not being able to see a screen, hear a voice, or climb stairs. Good design fixes the world, not the person.
Eco-friendly
Kind to the planet: using less energy, making less rubbish, doing less harm to animals, plants and air.
European Union
A group of 27 countries in Europe that make some rules together, so the same law applies in all of them. The AI Act is one of those rules.
Fake News
False information made to look true, sometimes written or spread by AI. That's why checking your sources matters!
Flu outbreak
When a lot of people in the same place catch flu at the same time. Spotting one early gives hospitals time to get ready.
Gene
A tiny instruction inside your body that helps decide things like your eye colour. You have about 20,000 different genes, and for most of them you get one copy from each parent.
Green AI
Building and running AI so that it uses as little energy as possible: smaller AI models, cleaner electricity, and machines that are not left running for nothing.
Hallucination
When AI makes something up and says it as if it were true. It is not lying on purpose. It is guessing what sounds right. Check anything that matters.
Hardware
The parts of a computer you can actually touch: the screen, the keyboard, the chips inside.
Humanities
Subjects like history, ethics and philosophy that help us understand people, society and right from wrong, skills AI still can't fully replace.
Innovate
To make something that did not exist before, or find a much better way of doing something. Inventing, improving, trying the idea nobody has tried yet.
Machine Learning
The way AI learns. Nobody writes the rules down: the computer looks at thousands of examples and works the rules out for itself.
Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI)
A medical scan that takes pictures inside your body. AI can help doctors read some MRIs faster and spot diseases earlier.
Malaria
A serious illness carried by mosquito bites. It still kills hundreds of thousands of people a year, most of them children, and most of them in Africa.
Manipulate
To trick somebody into doing or believing something, without them noticing. In the European Union, the law bans AI that tricks people in harmful ways, or uses a child's young age against them.
AI model
What an AI has become after training: the part that does the answering, spotting or predicting. Like a recipe someone has learnt by heart.
Monitor
To keep watching something so you notice the moment it changes. A machine that monitors a patient checks their heartbeat and breathing all night without getting tired.
Over-Reliance
Depending on AI so much that you stop thinking for yourself. Always use your own brain too!
Parameters
The little dials inside an AI that it adjusts while it learns. A big AI can have billions of them. Each one is nudged a tiny bit, again and again, until the answers get better.
Pattern
Something that keeps coming back: the same shape, the same word, the same colour. Finding patterns is the thing AI is best at.
Personalised
Made to fit one person. A personalised lesson goes slower where you find it hard and faster where you don’t.
Power grid
The web of cables that carries electricity from where it is made to every house, school and hospital. A "smart" grid uses AI to send power where it is needed.
Privacy
Your right to keep personal information (like your name, address or photos) safe and only shared with people you trust.
Professionals
People who are trained to do a particular job and are paid for it: a doctor, a pilot, a teacher, an engineer.
Protein
A tiny machine inside every living thing. Proteins build your muscles, carry oxygen and fight germs. AI can now guess their shape, which helps scientists look for new medicines.
RAM
The computer’s short-term memory. It holds what you are working on right now, so the computer can reach it quickly. When you switch the computer off, it forgets it all.
Repetitive
The same thing over and over again. People get bored and start making mistakes; a computer does not mind at all.
Scan
A picture of the inside of a body, taken by a machine instead of a camera: an x-ray, an MRI, an ultrasound.
Software
The programmes that tell the hardware what to do. You cannot touch software. It is instructions, written as code.
Solar panel
A flat panel that turns sunlight into electricity. AI helps work out where to put them and when to tilt them at the sun.
Surveillance
Watching people to see what they do, with cameras, phones or computers. Watching people in secret can hurt their privacy, so many countries have rules about when it is allowed.
UI/UX design
Designing how an app or website looks and how it feels to use: where the buttons go, what happens when you tap one, and whether the whole thing makes sense.
💛

Thank you

GR4AI exists because a lot of people gave their time to it.

  • Heath House Preparatory School and its consortium
  • the NIHR Youth Council
  • Nicola and Annika
  • Mr Stathidis
  • Mr Williams
  • Mrs Rokakis
  • Mrs Vatsitsis
  • Ms Iris Deligianni
  • Mrs Despoina Malamateniou
  • Mrs Sofia Torre
  • Dr Guil Couto
  • Mr Pearce
  • Dr Tapeinos
  • Dr Erenstein and his children
  • Dr Adibi and her children
  • Mr Vitale and Mrs Svetlic and their children
  • Claire Travers

Dedication

This book and this guide are dedicated to all grandparents, especially grandpa Georgios and grandma Keti, for all the love, the endless stories, the hugs, the fun games, the yummy food and the constant care that makes us all who we are: curious, responsible and kind.

🛠️ How GR4AI was made

Some of the pictures were made with openart.ai, from a lot of fun prompts by Katerina.

Some of the text was drafted with the help of Claude, an AI assistant, to make it clearer and friendlier for younger readers. Every word and every picture was checked by people before it went in.

📚 Sources for grown-ups

Where the numbers in this guide come from. Tap a chapter to jump back to it.

Further reading: Daniel Susskind, What Should My Children Do? How to Flourish in the Age of AI (Penguin, 2026), and his article for parents in The Guardian (6 September 2026).

The end, for now

That's the whole journey.

Want to know more about the project, the team, or how to support it?

Get in touch