Christina Gardner-McCune, Ph.D., director of the University of Florida's Engaging Learning Lab and co-chair of the AI4K12 Initiative, a national initiative to strategically integrate artificial intelligence (AI) education into K-12 learning, shares why sparking students’ and educators’ interest in AI is important and relevant, and what steps we should be taking right now. In the course of the interview, Gardner-McCune discusses the guidelines for teaching AI in K-12, explains the connection to computer science and coding, and unpacks the idea of AI as a life skill for even the youngest learners. She also shares the “five big ideas” behind the progression of AI in education: computer perception; representation and reasoning; machine learning; natural interaction; and societal impacts.