Google launches 'Polar Peaks', an AI Quest on mapping the brain

Google has launched "Polar Peaks", the third lesson in its AI Quests series, which aims to teach students how AI works and how to use it responsibly. Ronit Levavi Morad, Senior Director at Google Research, announced it on Google's blog on 26 October ^[1].

What the quest is

AI Quests was created by Google Research and the Stanford Accelerator for Learning. It invites students aged 11 to 14 to step into the shoes of Google researchers tackling big challenges ^[1]. The first two quests covered flood forecasting and eye disease detection, inspired by Google Research's Flood Forecasting initiative and its AI model for diabetic retinopathy screening ^[1].

In Polar Peaks, students travel to the frontiers of neuroscience. With in-game mentors they scan and map neurons in the brain to better understand a game character's memory loss. They complete tasks such as data cleaning and model testing, learning that AI needs careful human oversight and critical thinking ^[1].

Grounded in real research

Google says the quest is inspired by more than a decade of its research in connectomics, the science of mapping neural networks in the brain. After finishing, students hear from two researchers behind real-world breakthroughs, including the recent mapping of the complete fruit fly brain, which Google describes as the largest brain map by number of neurons to date ^[1].

Support for teachers

Alongside the quest, Google is releasing training modules for teachers within the Google AI Educator Series. Modules for the first two quests are available now, and the one for the third quest will follow next month ^[1]. The aim is to help educators fit the quests into their existing curriculum and use them for discussion ^[1].

Reach and recognition

Google says more than 400,000 quests have been completed so far, localised to 10 languages. It also reports that AI Quests won a 2026 Webby Award for AI Education, Learning and Training and Best Global K-12 Learning Solution at the ETIH Innovation Awards ^[1]. These are Google's own figures and claims. The company says it will keep working with educators and partners to bring more quests to classrooms this school year ^[1].

Why it matters

Many schools and employers are trying to build basic AI literacy, and free, game-style lessons are one way to do it. The notable design choice here is the emphasis on the unglamorous parts of AI work: cleaning data and testing models, with a human checking the results. That is a useful message for any workplace introducing AI tools, where the quality of the inputs and the judgement of the people using the output matter as much as the model.

For businesses with apprenticeship schemes, school outreach programmes or staff who are parents, the quests are a low-cost resource to know about. Because this is a Google education product, check it against your own policies on tools used with young people before recommending it formally.

Source: Google — Our newest AI Quest: Mapping the human brain