7 AI Terms Your Child Should Know (Before They Can Code)

We spend so much time worrying about coding. Python. Scratch. JavaScript. But before a child can write a program, they need a vocabulary. Words are the keys that unlock concepts. And the concepts, once understood, make the code almost an afterthought.

Here are seven AI words every child should know — and how to explain them, tonight, at the dinner table.

1. Pattern
“Something that repeats.” Red, blue, red, blue. Fork, spoon, fork, spoon. Patterns are how computers make sense of the world. Teach it with: socks, toys, coloured pencils.

2. Rule
“A way to decide yes or no.” All animals with four legs go here. All animals without four legs go there. Rules are how we sort the world — and how AI makes decisions.

3. Training data
“The examples we show a computer so it can learn.” If you only show it cats, it won’t know what a dog is. If you only show it dogs, it won’t know what a fox is.

4. Bug
“A mistake in instructions.” When you tell Kai to put cheese on bread but forget to tell him to take the bread out first, that’s a bug. Debugging is finding and fixing the mistake.

5. Bias
“When an AI learns something unfair because the examples were unfair.” If all the pictures of teachers show women in glasses, the AI will think only women in glasses can be teachers.

6. Hallucination
“When an AI makes up something that sounds real but isn’t true.” Like saying the capital of Australia is Sydney. It’s confident, but wrong.

7. Fairness
“Making sure the AI treats everyone equally.” This is the goal. The North Star. The thing we build toward.

How to teach them all in one game
The HiKIDAI Word Lab is a free vocabulary game that introduces these terms at the right level for every age. A five‑year‑old learns “pattern” and “bug.” A fifteen‑year‑old learns “algorithmic bias” and “stakeholder.” Each definition is accompanied by Kai’s cheerful feedback, and each correct match builds toward a final reflection: “You know the words AI experts use. Ready to teach a real robot?”

Before code, words. Before words, curiosity. You already have the curiosity. Now you have the words.