Smart about AI. Wise with it.
Artificial intelligence is already in your pocket, your school and your church. We teach young people, families and ministry leaders how it really works, what it cannot do, and how to use it with honesty and wisdom. Taught by an AI subject matter expert who builds state-of-the-art AI products every day.
AI Subject Matter Expert
Builds multi-agent AI systems every day · 60+ AI products at Nieto Engineering
Amazon Web Services · Booz Allen · DoD
40+ years of engineering for DoD, NSA, DARPA and federal agencies
Pathfinder leadership
Club director 2006–2019 · Master Guide · Instructor Trainer
Five ways in
Start with the honor or the free lab. Families, churches and leaders each get their own track. Every program ends in the same place: good judgment.
Artificial Intelligence Honor
What AI is, its history, 12 key terms, expert systems, a field trip and a Bible study, in three sessions plus a visit.
See the honor class →AI Lab
Teach a machine to recognize patterns, watch a tiny language model write, and run an expert system that shows its reasoning.
Open the lab →Faith & AI
Made in God's image: what makes people different from machines, plus the CHECK habit for truth, privacy and honesty.
Study it →Parents & Leaders
Family AI rules, a voice-scam safe word, conversation starters, and a workshop on using AI well in ministry.
Get the guides →AI Builders
Go past the honor: build and test your own models, learn how AI is engineered, and explore AI careers.
See the track →30-second path finder
Who is learning?
What do you want most?
A workshop on using AI well in church work, protecting member privacy, and a starter AI policy for your church.
See the workshopFamily rules, a safe word against voice-clone scams, and a covenant you sign together.
Family guideThree sessions, a field trip and a Bible study. Your club director awards the honor.
See the honor classBuilders is for 13 and up, after the honor. Start with the honor and the AI Lab now.
See the honor classBuild, train and test your own models, then present what you made.
See the trackThree demos that show what is actually happening inside AI. No account needed.
Open the labThe CHECK habit: truth, privacy, honesty and keeping a trusted adult in the loop.
Learn CHECKFelix Nieto II
AI Subject Matter Expert Founder & CEO, Nieto Engineering Inc.
“I don’t just talk about AI. I live it, day in and day out.”Felix Nieto II
Felix is not an AI user who picked up a few tricks. He designs, builds and runs state-of-the-art AI products in production. His career started at NASA Goddard as a high-school student working on early speech synthesis, one of the roots of today’s talking AI. It ran through 40+ years of engineering for DoD, NSA, DARPA and other federal agencies, senior engineering at Booz Allen Hamilton, and technical leadership at Amazon Web Services, where he designed DoD cloud architecture. Along the way he became an AI expert, applying AI and machine learning to defense and national-security work.
Today, at Nieto Engineering, he leads a portfolio of 60+ AI-based products. Every day he builds multi-agent AI systems, where specialized AI agents research, draft, score and hand work to each other; conversational voice agents that answer live business phone lines; AI chatbots grounded in a business’s own knowledge through retrieval-augmented generation; natural language processing and machine learning pipelines; and the guardrails, evaluation and safety filters that keep AI honest. When he teaches how AI works, he is describing what he built that morning.
- AI Subject Matter Expert: architects, builds and operates multi-AI systems in production
- Founder & CEO, Nieto Engineering Inc. (est. 1992): 60+ AI-based products for business, automotive and real estate
- Amazon Web Services: Senior Delivery Consultant and Technical Lead; DoD cloud architecture in GovCloud
- Booz Allen Hamilton and 40+ years of engineering for DoD, NSA, DARPA and federal agencies, including applied AI and machine learning
- Started at NASA Goddard in high school, on early speech synthesis
- Pathfinder club director, 2006 to 2019 · 1st Place Eagle Award · Leadership Instructor Trainer · Master Guide
- Co-founder of Nieto Ministries with his wife, Neusa
Wise as serpents, innocent as doves
Behold, I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves: be ye therefore wise as serpents, and harmless as doves.Matthew 10:16 (KJV)
Jesus did not tell His followers to hide from the world or to be naive about it. AI is a powerful tool. We want young people who understand it well enough not to be fooled by it, and who have the character to use it for good.
Hands-on, honest, and safe
No accounts for kids
Under-13s never sign up for AI tools in our classes. They use our in-browser lab and watch instructor demos.
Our age rules →Parents sign off
A parent or guardian signs the permission form for anyone under 18, including the field trip and any AI tool use for teens.
Print the form →Privacy by default
No names, photos, school names or prayer requests go into any AI tool in class. Ever. We teach it and we model it.
The CHECK habit →Quick answers
What ages can join?
The Artificial Intelligence Honor class is open to Pathfinders 10 and up. Most public AI chat tools require users to be at least 13 and minors to have a parent's permission, so in our classes students under 13 never create accounts: they use the AI Lab on this site, which runs in the browser and sends nothing anywhere, plus instructor-led demonstrations on the instructor's screen.
Is AI good or bad?
AI is a tool, like a hammer or the internet. It can help doctors spot disease and help a deaf student follow a sermon. It can also spread lies and scams. The honor and our faith study are about learning to tell the difference and choosing the good.
Do students need a laptop?
No. A club laptop or a phone works for the AI Lab, and we can bring a screen for demos. The lab runs in any modern browser, even offline once loaded.
Who awards the honor?
Your Pathfinder club director awards it. We teach and sign off each requirement. Official requirements: Artificial Intelligence honor
Can our church or club host a class?
Yes. We come to your group, in person in Maryland or online anywhere. Send a request.