‘I use it every day’ vs ‘It steals’: Inside a Pittsburgh program teaching AI to teens

Are the kids alright in the age of AI?

“I first used AI when I was 12 or something, whenever Snapchat AI came out,” 14-year-old Tristan Clark told Technical.ly. “I thought it was cool. I was trying to figure it out, like I didn’t understand what it was. I use AI a lot now.”

Clark is a student at McKeesport High School, and a participant in an AI-focused summer program led by the Boys and Girls Club of Western Pennsylvania.

The club has been working to prepare local students for a world influenced by artificial intelligence since 2019, way before generative AI became mainstream. The organization’s Artificial Intelligence Pathways Institute (AIPI) recently came to a close with a student showcase at PPG Place in downtown Pittsburgh.

Many of the 70 high school students in the three-week summer program said they started using AI tools back in middle school. Most of them recalled using it for homework help, but others said they used it to create art or learn about niche topics.

Not all of them were sold on AI’s value — and several noted ethical or environmental concerns.

“Personally, I don’t really use AI unless it’s for school. I don’t have no other reason to use AI,” said Brooke Twyman, a 15-year-old student at Oakland Catholic High School.

Others said the program had changed what they originally thought about AI.

“I think we should use AI more,” said Michael Garman, a 15-year-old student at West Mifflin Area High School. “I think it’s a very good helper, but there is an extent to it. I wouldn’t say make your paper [with it], but I say you can use it for fun.”

Supported by partners like NVIDIA and Carnegie Mellon University (CMU), the AIPI program is designed to give underrepresented students hands-on experience. The curriculum spanned machine learning, AI ethics, robotics engineering and creative computing.

Some students at the showcase presented posters tackling thorny ethical questions around AI, while sporting t-shirts they’d designed with AI-generated images. Others completed an obstacle course using robots made with NVIDIA’s Jetson technology or shared original songs composed with AI tools. From classic applications like robotics to creative twists in music and fashion, the event reflected just how many directions AI can take.

“The world is changing and we want to give them a leg up,” STEAM program manager Katie Collins told Technical.ly. “Why don’t we give [AI tools] to them and teach them how to use it as a tool to enhance what they’re doing?”

And the program isn’t slowing down — it’s developing a pre-apprenticeship version, set to launch this fall, that would allow participants to earn a certificate from CMU, according to Collins.

Keep scrolling to hear how students felt about the experience, in their own words.

Teens x AI: In their own words

“[AI] helps me when I need something to draw and when I’m stuck on a question, like homework. The career I want to do is be a fashion designer, and I need art and stuff, so AI probably will help me with that.”

— Mikayla Jones, 14, who created a poster with her cousin about generative adversarial networks, which can present ethical problems when training data contains bias 

“People use AI and they waste their whole judgement on it. You can’t base your whole judgement on it. AI can’t make thoughtful decisions with the lack of data that it has. Human input is very important.”

— Kynnadi Turner, 14, from Obama Academy, who created a poster about the ethics of using AI facial recognition technology

“I don’t plan to use generative AI as much. It can do a lot of negative things. Generative AI, it steals, like copyright infringement or plagiarism. Also, training AI, that takes a lot of water, so it can go through a lot of resources, and especially in smaller communities. AI can be used to steal people’s personal data, like passwords. I don’t think I’m gonna use AI very much, but if I do, it will be for things that I don’t think would negatively impact people.”

— Robert Greenwalt, 14, from Keystone Oaks High School