RESOURCES
Resources
Everything here is written down, so every team gets the same information. There are no workshops or live Q&A sessions. Ask questions in writing and we’ll answer within 2 working days; common questions go into the FAQ.
The full pack unlocks once your place is confirmed
Your track’s challenge with your age group’s requirements, a starter card, recommended tools for your age, templates and extra sheets (test tally, director’s cut, credits table, user-test notes, hardware declaration) arrive by email once your place is confirmed: the fee is paid and every member’s parent or guardian has confirmed. Please don’t post the full brief publicly.
Robotics: no robot? No problem.
Your sidekick can live on screen, in a cardboard body or on a kit. All three are judged the same, against the same checklist.
Screen
A Scratch character or a simulated robot that reacts to your own sound, hand sign or drawing.
Cardboard
A cardboard body with a laptop, tablet or phone camera as its eyes.
Kit
A micro:bit, a robot car or any kit you already have.
Judges score the loop, your tests and your decisions, not the hardware. Free, no-account tools can earn full marks.
Tools by age
- Use any tool that's allowed for your age under its own terms. This list is a recommendation, not a requirement. Free, no-account tools can earn full marks.
- The list was checked against each tool's published terms in October 2026. Terms change, and the tool's own terms always apply.
- Tool age rules go by each student's actual age on the day they use the tool, not their YAI age group. Some students in the 13–16 group are still 12 while they build: they use the 7–12 tools until their 13th birthday. The same goes for 18+ tools in the 17–19 group.
- Where a tool needs a parent's permission, the parent decides.
- An adult may operate a tool for an under-13 only where the tool's terms allow it (for example school- or teacher-managed accounts). An adult's own account on a 13+ or 18+ tool doesn't count.
Ages 7–12: no-account or adult-managed tools
| Tool | Good for | Account and age notes |
|---|---|---|
| Teachable Machine | Training image, sound or pose models in the browser | No account. Training happens in your browser and your examples stay on your device unless you save them to Google Drive (which needs a Google account; under-13s download the project file instead). An adult stays nearby while the camera or microphone is on. |
| Machine Learning for Kids | Training text, picture, number or sound models and using them in Scratch | A teacher or responsible adult creates a class account; students don't need an email or real name. The "Try it now" mode deletes projects after 4 hours, so use a class account for your project. |
| Scratch | Interactive stories, games and on-screen robots | Under-13s may need a parent's email to confirm the account. You don't need to share projects publicly: submit the downloaded file. If you do share, use no real name, school or photo, and you can turn comments off. |
| ScratchJr | Simple story apps for the youngest | Free app; projects stay on the device; no account. |
| micro:bit CreateAI + MakeCode | Movement and gesture models for a micro:bit | No login. Running the model on the device needs a micro:bit V2. Optional: only if you already have one. |
| MIT App Inventor (code.appinventor.mit.edu) | Simple phone apps | No account. Write down your revisit code and export a backup file (.aia). |
| Code.org AI tutorials | Learning the basics first | Try without an account (progress isn't saved). |
| Tinkercad | 3D cases and simple circuits | Through a teacher's class code, or with a parent's approval for an under-13 account. |
| Canva for Education / Adobe Express for Education | Design and AI image tools | Only through a school account your teacher sets up. No school account? Skip these. |
| Gemini | — | Only through a school's Google Workspace for Education account or a parent-managed (Family Link) account. We don't require or recommend it. |
Not for ages 7–12: ChatGPT, Claude, Microsoft Copilot, Replit, Suno, Google Colab, Hugging Face accounts, Kaggle, personal Canva, Adobe Express or Gemini accounts, and any other tool whose terms say 13+ (most AI chat, image, video and music apps).
Ages 13–16: everything above, plus
| Tool | Good for | Account and age notes |
|---|---|---|
| ChatGPT | Research help, prototyping, text tasks | 13+. Under 18 needs a parent's or guardian's permission. |
| Gemini | Research help, prototyping, multimodal tasks | 13+. Accounts Google judges to be under 18 get extra protections; some features, such as image generation, may not be available. |
| Microsoft Copilot | Research help, text tasks | 13+. |
| Canva / Adobe Express (personal) | Design and AI image tools | 13+. |
| Suno | AI music | 13+. Under 18 needs a parent's explicit consent. Free-plan music is for personal, non-commercial use only: list it in your credits. |
| Google Colab | Python notebooks, training models | Google account, 13+. |
| Replit | Building and hosting small apps | 13+. Under 18 needs a parent's permission. Keep your app private or link-only, and never put passwords or API keys in shared code. |
| Hugging Face | Pretrained models and datasets | 13+. Many community models and datasets aren't checked for young people: stick to well-known ones, and stop and tell an adult if you see something upsetting. |
| App Inventor (main site) | Phone apps | Google sign-in. |
Not for ages 13–16: Claude (18+ only). Not recommended: Kaggle (ages 13–16 need verifiable parental consent through Kaggle first).
Ages 17–19: everything above, plus
- Claude: only for team members aged 18 or over.
- Kaggle datasets and notebooks: allowed from age 17 under Kaggle's rules.
- Team members under 18 still need a parent's permission wherever a tool's terms ask for it.
Good habits with any tool
- In Singapore, accounts of under-18s may switch to a teen mode automatically. Plan around what your account can actually do.
- Never put other people's private information into an AI tool.
- Keep each tool's safety and teen settings on, and never try to get around them. In AI Agents, testing whether your own teammate keeps the rules you gave it is part of the challenge: use fair tricks only.
- Never put passwords or API keys in a shared project or in code others can see.
- Save often, export backups, and keep the original AI outputs: they're part of your evidence.
AI Agents: tools for building your teammate
Every age, before any tool: fill in your Agent Card on paper. Then act it out: one of you plays the teammate while family members ask your test questions. Free, no-account tools can earn full marks. No tool is required, and using a partner's tool earns no extra points. A tool's age rules apply to each student's age on the day they use it.
Ages 7–12
| Tool | Good for | Account and age notes |
|---|---|---|
| Machine Learning for Kids + Scratch (Pick-the-answer) | Teach the model to sort what people ask into a few kinds. In Scratch, you write every answer your teammate gives, and when it isn't sure it says "Ask a grown-up." | A teacher or responsible adult creates a class account. Students don't need an email or real name. Use the YAI Scratch starter project from your resource pack. |
Not for ages 7–12: ChatGPT (including Projects and GPTs), Gemini Gems on a personal account, Microsoft Copilot, Poe, Coze, Character.AI, and any adult's account used to do the AI work for a child.
Ages 13–16: add these
Team members who are still 12 during the build stick to the ages 7–12 tools until they turn 13.
| Tool | Good for | Account and age notes |
|---|---|---|
| Gemini Gems | Write your teammate's instructions and add 1–3 knowledge files you wrote yourself. | Personal Google Account, 13+. Share your Gem only with named people, such as the judges, never as public. Anyone you share it with can read its instructions and files. |
| ChatGPT Projects | The project instructions are your teammate's role, vibe and rules. | 13+. Under 18 needs a parent's or guardian's permission. Personal accounts can't create new GPTs, so use a Project. |
| CodeAI (Code.org) AI Chat Lab | Customise a chatbot and write its model card. | A teacher or parent sets up a class section. Not for under-11s; under-13s only with their school's approval. |
| NotebookLM | Your teammate's knowledge: it answers only from the sources you choose. | 13+. |
| MIT App Inventor with the ChatBot block | Turn your teammate into a phone app. | No account. Your chat goes through MIT's server to an AI model, so never type names, addresses or school names. There's a free daily limit, so share a recording, not the app. |
Ages 17–19: add these
| Tool | Good for | Account and age notes |
|---|---|---|
| Dify, Flowise or Coze Studio on your own computer, with a local model (for example via Ollama) | Build a full agent with knowledge and test tools. | No account, and your data stays on your computer. List each model's licence in your credits. Short on time? A Gem or a Project is enough; tools don't earn marks. |
| Your own OpenAI API key (in Python or App Inventor) | Full control over your teammate. | Under 18 needs a parent's permission. Never put keys in shared code. |
Don’t use for this track
- Character.AI or any AI companion app.
- The Gemini API or Google AI Studio: they're 18+, and not allowed in projects young people are likely to use.
- Tools that are 18+ only, such as Coze.com, AWS PartyRock and Claude, may be operated only by team members who are 18 on the day. We don't recommend building your teammate on them.
Sharing your build
Sharing is optional. If you post, use the safe-share checklist and the two tags, and see how a post can count for the Reach Bonus. Share your build
Templates
Project intro template
One sentence · the idea or problem · how to use or watch it · AI's job, with one piece of evidence · Boss Check · what we tested · limits · help and credits · who did what
Process log template
Date · what we did · what the AI did, and what we decided · what we changed, and why · help received · evidence. At least 3 / 4 / 5 entries by age group.
Talk planner
Five parts: the idea · demo · AI and how you made it · testing and what you improved · what you learned. No need to buy slides or training.
Milestone plans
Join by Sat 21 Nov: the Holiday Build. Join in December: a two-week plan. Join in the last week: a 7-day plan. Suggestions only; no effect on scores.
Ask a question in writing
Email hello@ (address to be confirmed). Please put your Team ID in the subject line if you have one.