Ask most adults to explain how AI works and you'll hear something like: "It's, um, computers that are really smart? Like robots?" Vague, confused, and a little scared.

Now imagine a 10-year-old saying: "AI is like the world's best autocomplete. You know how your phone guesses the next word when you're texting? AI does the same thing, but with billions of patterns, so it can write whole paragraphs. But it doesn't actually understand anything. It just knows what words usually go together."

That explanation is clearer than what most tech executives give. Why? Because the 10-year-old used an analogy everyone knows, kept it simple, and was honest about the limitations. Teaching others about AI isn't about knowing everything. It's about explaining what matters in a way that clicks.