AI classroom activity: Machine learning

In my first Teacher article, I discussed the importance of teaching artificial intelligence (AI) to schoolchildren. Based on my experience, the key to demystifying AI is to emphasise that in almost all real-world situations AI is nothing more than imitation of human-like behaviours. Last week, we looked at an unplugged activity that illustrated how we could build a simple program to perform facial recognition. In this article, I will discuss how to build an AI system that can exhibit another behaviour that is often associated with human intelligence: learning. Humans have a superb natural ability to learn from experience. Everyone who has taken care of a child can tell you the sense of amazement observing a toddler taking their first step walking and saying their first word.