Little AI: Playing a constructivist robot

Abstract Little AI is a pedagogical game aimed at presenting the founding concepts of constructivist learning and developmental Artificial Intelligence. It primarily targets students in computer science and cognitive science but it can also interest the general public curious about these topics. It requires no particular scientific background; even children can find it entertaining. Professors can use it as a pedagogical resource in class or in online courses. The player presses buttons to control a simulated “baby robot”. The player cannot see the robot and its environment, and initially ignores the effects of the commands. The only information received by the player is feedback from the player’s commands. The player must learn, at the same time, the functioning of the robot’s body and the structure of the environment from patterns in the stream of commands and feedback. We argue that this situation is analogous to how infants engage in early-stage developmental learning (e.g., Piaget (1937), [1] ).