When should a learner first meet AI?

The biggest teachers union in the country just asked schools to keep AI out of elementary classrooms. No student facing AI before middle school, no companion chatbots under sixteen, and supervised use after that. Their words: they are not calling for a Chromebook bonfire, they want to get the balance right.

Here is the real question underneath it. AI literacy is developmental. When and how should a learner first meet AI, not simply whether.

Where do you land? Keep the youngest kids AI free while we build literacy as they mature, or does a blanket elementary ban risk widening the gap for schools that cannot staff the human alternative? Educators and parents here, I want to hear your read.