AI+Education Summit 2026: AI Quests – When Learning Sciences Meet Product Design toward AI Literacy

Quick Overview

The AI+Education Summit 2026 panel, featuring Alon Harris, Victor Lee, and moderator Ronit Levavi Morad, detailed the development of "AI Quests," an educational initiative designed to teach AI literacy by translating complex research into age-appropriate, gamified lesson plans that focus on human agency and ethical considerations.

Key Points: The "AI Quests" initiative translates complex AI research into gamified, age-appropriate lesson plans to foster AI literacy in teens. The panel introduced three main quests: "Market Marshes" (Flood Forecasting), "Dusky Dunes" (Blindness Prevention), and "Polar Peaks" (Mapping the Brain). The pedagogical approach emphasizes human agency, requiring students to make decisions on data cleaning, model training, and understanding ethical implications. The Flood Forecasting Quest ("Market Marshes") involves teaching students about AI models that predict river flooding, explicitly showing the steps from understanding the problem to assessing flood safety. The Blindness Prevention Quest involves students using AI-powered eye scans to diagnose diabetic retinopathy, mirroring real-world tools and demands. A key pedagogical principle is balancing technical understanding with human context, ensuring students understand the consequences of AI actions (e.g., poor data leading to inaccurate forecasts). The initiative is a collaboration between Google Research and the Stanford Accelerator for Learning (SAL).

Context: This video captures a panel discussion from the 2026 AI+Education Summit, focusing on the "AI Quests" project, a collaboration between Google Research and the Stanford Accelerator for Learning (SAL). The panel, moderated by Ronit Levavi Morad, included Alon Harris (Google Research) and Victor Lee (Stanford/SAL), who discussed how they bridge the gap between cutting-edge AI research and K-12 education by creating interactive, gamified learning experiences aimed at building AI literacy.

Detailed Analysis

The panel introduced "AI Quests," an initiative built on the premise that humans can initiate and design AI applications to solve major global challenges. The core goal is to move students from passive consumption to active participation in AI, emphasizing enduring understanding, ethics, and human agency. The project is structured around three specific quests mirroring real-world research domains: Flood Forecasting (Market Marshes), Blindness Prevention, and Mapping the Brain (Polar Peaks). Alon Harris highlighted the importance of avoiding the mistake of focusing only on technical skills, stressing that students must understand the societal impact and ethical considerations, such as data bias. Victor Lee emphasized the iterative design process, where students learn by doing—collecting data, cleaning it, training models, and testing outcomes—and seeing the consequences of their decisions. The team consciously designed the experience to ensure students understand the limitations (like relying on potentially inaccurate forecasts) and the importance of human oversight, contrasting the game experience with the real-world rigor required in both science and product development. The panel concluded by thanking the audience and providing the URL for access: research.google/ai-quests.