Overture Uses Paper-and-Pencil Lessons to Teach Children's AI Literacy in More Than 50 Schools

Overture co-founder and COO Steven Jiang says children encounter AI in search results, images, videos, homework tools, and games but lack proper guidance, creating an AI-literacy gap. Overture runs AI enrichment courses in more than 50 schools in Chicago and Boston and plans to expand to over 120 programs. Its early-childhood AI curriculum is entirely paper-based and screen-free, using activities such as 'Real or AI' to help students spot flaws in AI-generated images and develop critical thinking.

Overture's paper-and-pencil approach offers an alternative path for children's AI literacy that does not depend on rapidly changing tools and emphasizes understanding AI over passive use. It gives schools and community organizations a replicable curriculum with a lower specialist barrier for teachers and draws attention to equitable resource allocation in AI education.