AI literacy and “screen-free” may seem like an unlikely pair, but to Baltimore technologist Amber Ivey, they’re a perfect fit for kids.
Ivey created AI Digicards, an answer to a fast-moving landscape where schools are experimenting with AI tools, parents are worried about screen time, and teachers are often learning the technology at the same time as their students.
The goal is to make AI literacy fun, while also teaching the perils and benefits of AI.
Its first product is a game called the ABCs of AI. Designed for ages 4–8, it blends definitions, stories, activities and audio into a card-based “edutainment” system designed to introduce AI concepts through a simple deck of cards.
The goal, Ivey said, is to make AI literacy fun, while also teaching the perils and benefits of AI.
“[Kids] learn through a bit of education and entertainment,” Ivey told Technical.ly. “When I was a kid, we had ‘I’m Just a Bill’ and Sesame Street, where I still remember those songs and activities to this day.”
Ivey launched a Kickstarter campaign for the ABCs of AI deck, which has so far well exceeded its original goal of $2,500. Backers can reserve a deck with a pledge, or sponsor a school by making a pledge for 10 decks.
“It’s happening, which is really cool,” Ivey said.
From early adoption to ABCs
Ivey has more than a little experience with AI. By day, she works in government-focused data performance management and artificial intelligence, where she’s spent years evaluating emerging technologies and their real-world impact.
“I had seen [a research version of] ChatGPT almost two years before it came out to the public,” she said. Ivey even licensed her voice to an AI company that had early access to ChatGPT.
Between her work and spending time with her tech-savvy nieces and nephews, she found herself pulled toward teaching kids. In 2023, she published “AI Meets AI,” a picture book that uses a local robotics-lab mystery to introduce children to artificial intelligence.
“It’s about a little girl in Baltimore City named Addie Iris who found a lost robot from Johns Hopkins University,” Ivey said.
The book combines kid-friendly exposure to AI with diversity and inclusion in the tech sector.
Screen-free for equity
While limiting kids’ screen time in general is one reason the ABCs of AI is in a non-tech, deck-of-cards format, another major reason is access.
Ivey said she’s seen firsthand how uneven that landscape can be in Baltimore, especially during the pandemic when parents lined up for hours to secure Chromebooks for their children so they could continue their schoolwork from home.
Low-barrier resources like AI Digicards can give kids who lack consistent internet or home devices to have the same early exposure to AI concepts as peers with more tech access.
Even with that barrier lowered, AI literacy faces another big challenge across the board: fear.
“Early on, parents were like, ‘no,’” Ivey said. “But then when they started to see that I actually address the issues and how to get around in a space where AI isn’t going anywhere.”
What ultimately sells parents and teachers on the concept, she said, is that unlike letting kids loose on AI tools without understanding them, it’s something they can control, monitor and use on their own terms.
Harnessing the benefits of AI
Ivey is serious about protecting kids from the dangers of AI and educating them about the bad side of the technology, but she is not an AI doomer. AI, she said, can be beneficial for learning in ways that are just starting to be explored.
“If Jonathan or Jane needs to learn about X topic visually, versus Bill and Bethany want to learn about X topic through audio, AI actually allows you to do that,” she said. “It can help kids learn in ways that’s most effective for them.”
But before any of that can happen, children, teachers and parents need to understand what AI really is, its risks and its potential.
“I want to make parents and teachers comfortable,” Ivey said. “This is AI literacy that starts at the kitchen table, not on a tablet.”
