What 2,000 High Schoolers Taught Us About Building for the Next Generation

Recapping the 2026 CS Fair

We brought Zumi to the NYC Computer Science Fair yesterday which welcomes 2,000 students from 60 schools across every NY borough.

We had a booth in the AI room and shared all of Zumi 2.0 features: the map, animated stories, and trading. Plus a mini game we built on Zumi inspired by Crossy Road (every kid knew Crossy Road and understood the assignment).

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Here’s what we walked away with:

1. Games pull kids in immediately

The second we highlighted the leaderboard, kids started competing, calling each other over, and trying to beat scores in real time. Some wanted to play side by side just to see who could win. Others downloaded the app while their friends were playing so they could compete alongside them. They stayed to see their name populate and cared way more once their name was on the screen.

The game was not even the main product. It was just the entry point. But it got the most energy by far.

2. Kids really understand AI

Students were asking what parts of Zumi are generated versus not. How the responses work. Why it might be slow sometimes. One kid asked how we built the game itself.

A lot of them have clearly built things already and wanted to compare notes on how we generate video stories, games, and the LLMs under Zumi. These students are consumers, builders, and critics all at once.

3. They still care about things being cute and alive

After the game, the thing people kept reacting to was the animated stories. They would watch them and just say “this is so cute.”

In a room full of technical demos, personality is what mattered to the students most. They enjoyed that the characters feel like they have their own lives.

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This generation is competitive, curious, and more fluent in this space than people give them credit for. They have grown up with tools that let them build, remix, and ship, so they evaluate products the way operators do.

The lesson for anyone building consumer AI is that technical sophistication and emotional resonance are the price of entry. A product that is impressive but sterile will lose to one that is impressive and has a soul, because these kids can tell the difference immediately and they are going to spend their attention accordingly. The next generation of consumer products will be judged by users who understand the stack well enough to respect the craft and still expect the thing to make them feel something.