BELLEVUE, Wash. — The students in Mr. Yavorski’s 5th grade computer science class at Ardmore Elementary School didn’t recognize their guest instructor Monday morning. Most of them had been watching the Disney Channel, not The Daily Show, during his years as host.

Trevor Noah prefers it that way. 

“Kids don’t know me at all, which I love — it’s my favorite thing ever,” he explained afterward. “They aren’t responding to me because of celebrity, and I’m not responding to them from a position of celebrity. It’s just us in a room.”

It was a good starting point to learn about AI together. Noah was at Ardmore for Code.org’s Hour of AI. The comedian, author and podcast host is Microsoft’s “Chief Questions Officer,” and he had a lot of questions for the kids. 

“Why did the ‘random’ algorithm work at the beginning but not at the end?” he asked toward the close of the session, after he and the students had spent nearly an hour programming in “Bug Arena,” a game where digital bugs compete to cover the most territory with paint. 

Noah wasn’t testing them. He genuinely wanted to know.

“Because it’s random,” one student explained. “Random can work a lot of times, but later on, when the puzzles get more difficult, you gotta use your techniques.”

After more back-and-forth, thinking through the problem aloud with the class, Noah nodded: “I feel like you’re on to something.”

That’s how it went for much of Noah’s guest appearance at Ardmore Elementary for the Hour of AI, arranged by Microsoft as part of national Computer Science Education Week. 

“We are all kids in the age of AI,” Noah said later. “This isn’t the kind of situation where adults have a leg up. I would argue most adults in the world are behind kids when it comes to AI.”

Noah has been experimenting with AI on his own, spending hours building agents and automated systems. For his stand-up comedy, for example, he’s been working on tools to transcribe his sets, keep everything in a central archive, and make it searchable.

But his first love is video games. He told the class he’s been playing Grand Theft Auto since it was top-down, not first-person, and rattled off his credentials in Minecraft and Elden Ring.

“I could probably beat all of you in any game,” he said. “I know you don’t believe it, but it’s true.”

When one student mentioned Madden NFL, Noah conceded, “You’ll beat me in Madden.”

His interest in technology, he told the students, grew out of his interest in games. “Sometimes you play a game and you think, it should be like this. I want to make my own games.”

The classroom dynamic fit Noah’s approach. He wasn’t there to lecture; he was there to explore alongside the kids, and to get them thinking about how AI actually works.

From coding to computer science

The event, formerly known as the Hour of Code, has introduced more than 1 billion students in more than 180 countries to computer science since its inception more than a decade ago.

The change in focus is a recognition that the ground has shifted. In an era when AI can write code, the idea isn’t just to teach kids to program. It’s to help them understand what the technology is doing behind the scenes, including the fact that it can make mistakes. 

“We want the kids to get a real understanding of how AI doesn’t necessarily ‘know.’ It’s always guessing and using probabilities to make its best judgments,” explained Hadi Partovi, the Code.org CEO, who joined Noah as a special guest teacher for the Ardmore class.

Also leading the class Monday was Jacqueline Russell, a Microsoft product manager focused on computer science education. She led the volunteer mobilization, training 300 Microsoft employees who’ve been dispatched to classrooms across Western Washington this week. It dovetails with the company’s broader Elevate Washington initiative for AI education and training in the state.

For the Bellevue School District, the event was also a chance to bring attention to how it funds technology in schools. Local levies account for 24% of the district’s budget, and voters will decide in February whether to renew a four-year technology and capital projects levy that fills the gap for classroom technology, devices for students, and STEM programs.

‘Computer science is for everybody’

For Ardmore Principal Yusra Obaid, the visit reinforced a broader message. “Computer science is for everybody,” she said. “You don’t have to be a specific person or look a certain way.”

Before leading the class, Noah met in the Ardmore library with a group of Bellevue School District teachers — who were much more firmly in the Comedy Central demographic. They were grappling with questions of their own, including how best to use AI to engage with kids, and whether AI would undermine the fundamental components of education.

Noah did more listening than talking, taking in what the teachers had to say. 

“There is a valid concern from teachers in and around whether or not AI will erase what we consider learning to be,” he said afterward. But he saw it as a reason to engage, not retreat. “A good teacher is somebody who continues to ask themselves questions, doesn’t assume that they know, and then themselves tries to keep on learning.”

He said he hoped the kids (and everyone else) would walk away from the experience Monday with an “unbridled curiosity” about what’s next. “Keep being curious, keep having fun with it,” he said, “and keep enjoying the fact that you don’t know.”