Where Did AI Come From
& Where Might It Be Headed?

This learning activity focuses on stories of some of the people and events involved with the history of Artificial Intelligence and ideas of possible futures with AI.

1. Where Did AI Start? (15 minutes)

   • • Book: Alan Turing (Little People, BIG DREAMS)

     • Alan Turing

     • John McCarthy

     • Vocabulary: Artificial Intelligence

2. Natural Language Processing (15 minutes)

   • • Turing Test

     • Vocabulary: Natural Language Processing

     • Georgetown–IBM experiment

     • ELIZA

     • Siri & Alexa

     • ChatGPT 

     • Translation Demo

3. Object Recognition (15 minutes)

   • • Vocabulary: Object Recognition

     • Examples of AI that uses Object Recognition

     • Fei-Fei Li

     • Demo Object Recognition

4. Societal Impact (20-30 minutes)

   • • Book: Choose and read a book about societal impact of AI

     • Student Reflection Activity: What do you imagine for a new or improved AI system, app, or feature? 

Teacher Materials

• Teacher Guide

• Teacher Slides (Use Template to make copy)

•  Books (or video read-alouds):

  • Alan Turing - Little People, Big Dreams 

  • Societal Impact: One book needed

    • Elementary AI Books | AIClub

    • AI+Me: Big Idea 5 - Societal Impact: How AI Can Change the World

Student Materials

• • Paper

  • Pencils (1 per student)

  • Crayons, markers, or colored pencils

Teacher device to access

• • Slides

  • Google Translate

  • Unsplash Download the image for object identification

  • Object Recognition options (need one):

    • Vision AI: Image & Visual AI Tools | Google Cloud You do not need to be signed in to use this. Can see both objects identified and the category labels.

    • Google Lens Click the camera in search. Performs a search rather than just identifying objects

    • ASU Image Accessibility Creator This combines object recognition and natural language processing. 

• Elementary AI Books | AIClub

2026 Standards

EK-SOC-HI-14: Identify computing technologies used in daily life that have changed over time.

EK-SOC-CE-16: Identify how people use digital devices at home, at school, and at work.

EK-SOC-HU-15: Explain that people design and develop computing technologies.

E1-SOC-HI-14: Compare how an everyday activity changed after a specific computing technology was introduced.

E2-SOC-HI-14: Analyze the ways that people from different cultures, backgrounds, and time periods have designed computing technologies to help them solve problems and express ideas.

E2-SOC-HU-15: Investigate situations where humans have created computing technologies to solve problems.

2017 Standards

1A-IC-16 Compare how people live and work before and after the implementation or adoption of new computing technology.

K-2.5-B-i Identify devices in daily life that use AI technologies.

K-2.5-C-i Identify current uses of AI and how they have impacted society. 

K-2.5-D-ii Describe how AI can be used to solve a societal problem.