Family as a Third Space for AI Literacies: How do children and parents learn about AI together?

Abstract

Many families engage daily with artificial intelligence (AI) applications, from conversations with a voice assistant to mobile navigation searches. While there are known ways for youth to learn about AI, we do not yet understand how to engage parents in this process. To explore parents' roles in helping their children develop AI literacies, we designed 11 learning activities organized into four topics: image classification, object recognition, interaction with voice assistants, and unplugged AI co-design. We conducted a 5-week online in-home study with 18 children (5 to 11 years old) and 16 parents. We identify parents' most common roles in supporting their children and consider the benefits of parent-child partnerships when learning AI literacies. Finally, we discuss how our different activities supported parents' roles and present design recommendations for future family-centered AI literacies resources.