Kira Learning: Democratizing AI Literacy

Computers in classrooms

The year is 1968. The place is just outside of Seattle. Teachers at Lakeside School have a firm belief that textbook materials fall far too short of the skills needed in the rapidly changing real world. Joined by Bill Gates, aged 13, and Paul Allen, aged 15, two of the top students at the school, they convince the Lakeside School Mothers Club to lease a Teletype Model 33 ASR terminal hooked up to the General Electric mainframe terminal for computer time-sharing. Lakeside School becomes one of the only high schools with access to computers during a time when even most universities did not have access to them. Gates, and Allen, let their imaginations fly fiddling with the computer late into the night and on the weekends. The rest is history.