Five Big Ideas FAQ
This page refers to the "Five Big Ideas in AI" list developed by the AI4K12 Initiative. The list is published in the form of a poster that is available in several languages:
CSTA’s experience developing the 2011 and 2017 national standards for K-12 computing education showed that five big ideas was the right number, balancing the need for depth with the need for simplicity. We followed their lead.
The order is aligned with several logical progressions. First, there is a logical flow from input to internal representations to actions and effects. Second, there is a progression from focused and concrete topics (vision, speech recognition) to broad, abstract topics (e.g., giving robots cultural knowledge, or preparing for the economic impacts of AI). Third, children’s first conscious encounters with AI often take the form of interaction with voice-based agents such as Alexa or Siri, or with computer vision applications such as face recognition. So it makes sense to start with perception.
The numbers are just for convenient reference. They do not indicate the priority or significance of their respective topics. Nor do they indicate the order in which big ideas must be introduced in a curriculum that aligns with the guidelines. In many cases we expect curriculum modules on complex topics (e.g., self-driving cars, or AI and healthcare) to reference all of the big ideas.
This list was developed by the AI4K12 Steering Committee (David Touretzky, Christina Gardner-McCune, Fred Martin, and Deborah Seehorn) in consultation with the AI4K12 Working Group and Advisory Board, and additional input from members of the AI4K12 mailing list. The leadership of AI4K12 includes representatives of both AAAI (the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence) and CSTA (the Computer Science Teachers Association).