AI Detective
A seven-lesson course that teaches children how AI actually works, where it goes wrong, and how to check it. Years before they are old enough to use it on their own.
- 7
- lessons
- 75
- minutes each
- 12-15
- children
- 2
- adults in the room
- 0
- AI accounts for kids
Your child never types into an AI. There are no accounts for children here. Adults operate every tool, and every example a class sees has been checked by an adult first.
In the room
What your child actually does
Almost none of it happens on a screen. Children vote with counters, sort cards on the floor, argue about penguins, and hunt for mistakes in pairs.
They train an AI, and watch it get it wrong
One child wears the badge and becomes a Tiny AI. The class teaches it with four animal cards. Then a penguin walks in, and the Tiny AI says it can fly. Nobody was naughty. The examples were missing something.
They catch a confident mistake
The instruction said write a sentence with exactly four words. The answer reads: The robot dances on Mars. Neat, correct spelling, sounds sure. The class counts the tiles and finds five.
They inspect a picture against its instructions
Five apples, four cups, three rabbits, a sign saying CHECK FIRST. Sixty seconds, working in pairs. The picture is beautiful and it followed none of them.
They learn a routine they can actually use
The STOP shield, with a hand signal for each part. Four steps, practised until a six-year-old can do them without being asked.
The bit they remember
The STOP shield
Four steps with a hand signal each, practised out loud until they stick. Ask your child to run through it at dinner.
Share no private details
Test important answers
Only with a grown-up
Pause and tell
By the last lesson
What they can say afterwards
Seven sentences, in their own words. This is what the course is assessed against, and what we report back to you.
- AI learns patterns from examples.
- A chatbot makes predictions one piece at a time.
- AI can help us create, but people choose what is good and what needs changing.
- AI can sound confident while being wrong.
- Important answers must be checked.
- Private information should not be shared.
- When something feels worrying, confusing, secretive, or unsafe, pause and tell a trusted adult.
“It sounded really sure. But it was wrong, so we checked.”
Who teaches it
Maximilian Ahn
Twenty years building data and AI capability inside regulated banks, across Citi, Credit Suisse and UBS, where he founded APAC Compliance Data Science.
The regulated part is what matters here. It is a job where you are not allowed to ship a model you cannot explain, cannot check, and cannot defend when someone asks why it decided that. This course teaches children the same habit, in much smaller words.
He is not a schoolteacher by trade, and does not pretend to be. Every lesson runs with two adults in the room.
Practicalities
How it works
- Length
- Seven lessons, 75 minutes each
- Group size
- 12 to 15 children, two adults
- At home
- About 10 minutes with you between lessons
- When
- Saturday mornings, from October 2026
- Where
- Bukit Timah area, exact venue confirmed on enrolment
S$399 for the first cohort, normally S$490, in exchange for detailed feedback at the end. Holding a place costs nothing today.
Does my child get to use ChatGPT?
No, and that is the point. Children in this course never type into an AI model and never have an account. The one place a model runs is operated by the lecturer, and everything it produces passes an adult and a safety check before a class sees it. Nothing about your child is ever sent to an AI provider.
Most services set 13 as the age for independent use. Your child has years before then, and AI-made pictures, voices and answers are already all around them. Those years are the opportunity.
Twelve places
Hold a place
Twelve places in the first cohort, Saturday mornings from October 2026. No payment today. Put your name down and I will email you the full details, including dates and venue.