AI Quests: Bringing AI literacy to the classroom

Today, we're launching a fun new way for students to learn firsthand about how AI can address real-world challenges. Created by Google Research in collaboration with the Stanford Accelerator for Learning, AI Quests invites students ages 11 to 14 to step into the shoes of Google researchers, applying AI across climate, health and science. It's our latest effort around AI literacy in classrooms, not only teaching the next generation how to use the technology, but also inspiring them to use AI to make a positive impact on their world.

In AI Quests, students explore the fundamentals of AI and its applications through a series of immersive adventures. They have the opportunity to explore, make mistakes, reflect on their thinking and make changes, with guidance from their in-game mentor, Professor Skye.

The quests are set in a fantasy world, but they address real societal challenges. In the first quest, live today and inspired by our Flood Forecasting research, students learn how AI can help predict floods and give communities timely flood warnings. Students must collect relevant data sources, like rainfall and river flow, evaluate the quality of the data and train and test their model. They use this to help the game characters anticipate the next flood. Students learn how factors like human judgment and data quality shape AI's outputs and impact.

Two more quests will launch in the coming months. One quest draws from an AI model developed by Google Research to detect a condition called diabetic retinopathy, which can lead to blindness. The other quest takes inspiration from our Connectomics research to map and understand the human brain.

At the end of each quest, students receive a recorded video message from the real researchers behind the work about how they are using AI responsibly to improve the lives of millions of people worldwide. Each quest also comes with a complete lesson plan and teacher guide, with pre- and post-game activities.

AI Quests is open and available to all educators and organizations. Experience AI, an educational program co-developed by Google DeepMind and the Raspberry Pi Foundation, is embedding AI Quests in their global AI literacy curriculum, and CRAFT by Stanford Accelerator for Learning is also integrating the experience. Other AI literacy providers are welcome to embed AI Quests in their own curriculum and educators can access it directly through our website.

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