Botley
The Thinking Bot
Kids discover how computers make decisions using logic and IF-THEN rules, by running Botley's chocolate factory and sorting shapes like a real rule-based system.
Dr. Age AI / Books
Can a machine really THINK?
Step into Dr. Age's AI Lab and find out. Meet the AI Bots! is a story-powered activity book that introduces artificial intelligence to children ages 7 to 10, with no screen required.
Meet the AI Bots!
Artificial intelligence is already part of your child's world: in games, videos, classrooms, and future careers. Understanding how it works is a modern kind of literacy, just like reading and arithmetic.
This colorful activity book introduces AI through stories, friendly characters, and hands-on learning. Children meet four bots, each representing a real branch of AI, and learn how machines think, talk, see, and learn.
No computer is needed for the core activities. Just curiosity, a pencil, and a grown-up ready to explore.
Ages 7 to 10, and a friendly first introduction to AI for older beginners too.
Paperback is best for writing, drawing, worksheets and certificates. Kindle is best for reading together and guided discussion.
What's inside
Meet the bot team
Each bot represents a real branch of artificial intelligence.
Chatzo
The Talking Bot
An introduction to language AI and prompting. Children learn why clear questions get better answers, and why a chatbot predicts patterns rather than truly understanding words.
Pixi
The Seeing Bot
How computer vision works, why AI sometimes mistakes a burrito for a puppy, and what happens when a bot is trained on too few examples.
Learno
The Baby Bot
Brand new and learning everything for the first time. Learno shows how AI is trained with examples, mistakes, and feedback, just like you once were.
The nine chapters
- 1Who Is Dr. Age?
- 2Meet Botley, The Thinking Bot
- 3Meet Chatzo, The Talking Bot
- 4Meet Pixi, The Seeing Bot
- 5How Do AIs Learn?
- 6AI in Real Life
- 7Be a Smart & Safe AI Explorer
- 8Build Your Own Bot
- 9Congratulations, Junior AI Explorer!
Plus an Answer Key, a kid-friendly AI Dictionary, an educator quick-reference page with discussion questions, and AI Discovery Diary pages for recording real-world AI sightings.
Which format should I choose?
Paperback
Best for writing, drawing, worksheets, badges, and certificates. This is the hands-on edition children work in with a pencil.
Kindle
Best for reading together and guided discussion. Worksheets can be printed from the activity pack on this site.
Perfect for
Curious children who ask big questions, and the grown-ups helping them find answers.
- ✓Parents who want a trustworthy first introduction to AI at home.
- ✓Teachers, librarians and homeschool families looking for an approachable unit on AI and digital citizenship.
- ✓STEM clubs and coding clubs starting an AI module.
- ✓Older beginners meeting artificial intelligence for the first time.
Written by an AI professor and researcher
Dr. Age is the author persona of Dr. Muhammad Umar Chaudhry, Ph.D., an AI professor and researcher with more than fifteen years of teaching and research experience in computing, artificial intelligence, and machine learning.
He created this book for curious children, including his own two Junior AI Explorers, to make AI easier, safer, and more joyful to understand.
Have the book? Get the activity pack.
Printable worksheets and explorer certificates, free for readers, plus extra challenges for ages 10 and up.
Open the bonus page