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Your child
explores a city
of machines. They learn
how AI works.

Max and a young apprentice in Mechna City at golden hour, with the clock tower, the viaduct train and the glass Spire behind them.

Hey, I’m Max! Senior apprentice, which mostly means I ride the Inner Loop a lot. Come on, all the way around.

Step 1 of 8

/// SECTOR 01 _ ONE MISSION _ 4 STOPS

One mission, in four pictures.

A mission is one problem to solve in the city. It takes two short sessions of 15 to 20 minutes.

The child and Max listen as a stall keeper shows lanterns in the wrong bins.
The child points at colour, size and shape choices while the machine hatch stays locked.
The child and Max look through the open hatch at pictures showing how the machine sorts.
The child holds a Discovery Card recording what they found.

For example, the market’s sorting machine keeps putting lanterns in the wrong bins.

The child and Max listen as a stall keeper shows lanterns in the wrong bins.

For example, the market’s sorting machine keeps putting lanterns in the wrong bins.

The child points at colour, size and shape choices while the machine hatch stays locked.

Your child taps a picture: is it looking at colour, size or shape? No typing, and “I’m not sure yet” is a fine answer.

The child and Max look through the open hatch at pictures showing how the machine sorts.

Only after the guess, the machine’s little door unlocks. We call it the Peek Hatch. Inside, pictures show how the machine really decides.

The child holds a Discovery Card recording what they found.

Your child changes one thing, tests it on something new, and saves what they found on a Discovery Card.

Every machine works the same way: guess first, then look inside.

Later missions take on the AI your child already meets: apps that pick the next video, and AI that sounds sure but gets things wrong.

See a full session, step by step →

/// SECTOR 02 _ MECHNA CITY _ FIVE DISTRICTS

Five districts. One big idea about AI in each.

In Mechna, the neighbourhoods are called districts. The train loops through all five, so your child can ride from one to the next.

A sorting machine scans apples with a soft light beam, and a boy points at the tomato it dropped into the apple bin.

Lantern Market. AI in everyday life.

A park robot outlines the ducks and leaves it has noticed on the pond, and a boy points at the frog it missed.

Greenline Park. What machines can notice.

A robot arm sorts coloured blocks under four green lamps and one amber one, and a girl slides in a new picture card to teach it.

The Foundry. How machines learn, get tested and get fixed.

A girl laughs as a machine turns her cards of a cat, wings and a teapot into a new winged cat with a teapot-spout tail.

Storyworks. How AI makes new things.

Children behind the big clock face hold up yes and no tokens while a machine waits for their answer.

Clocktower. Can we trust it, and who decides?.

Riding the train into Mechna City at sunset: a clock tower, a river and the glowing Academy Spire ahead.

RIDE INTO
THE CITY.

Join the waitlist

Places are limited.

/// SECTOR 03 _ CITY RULES

What Mechna never does.

Your child learns how machines decide without ever chatting with one. These are the rules Mechna is built to.

  • No ads. Nothing to buy in the app.

    No ads, coins, loot boxes or in-game purchases.

    Mechna never shows ads, and there are no coins, loot boxes or purchases inside the game. Nothing is for sale in the founding-family program.

  • No chat. No live AI.

    No chatbot, and no chatting with anyone.

    Your child never chats with anyone in Mechna, and never with an AI. There’s no chatbot and no live AI model in the app. The machines your child studies run on rules and examples we’ve written and checked in advance.

  • No microphone. No camera.

    Your child taps pictures and word tiles. No typing.

    Mechna never asks to use the device’s microphone or camera. Your child answers by tapping or clicking pictures and word tiles. There’s no typing.

  • Your child’s play stays on the device.

    No accounts, no analytics of our own, and the game doesn’t go online.

    No accounts, no ads and no analytics of our own, and the game doesn’t go online. Progress stays on the device, and we never ask for your child’s name or birth date. The founding-family version runs on Apple’s TestFlight, which shares crash reports, basic use and device details with us, plus any feedback you send. Apple says this can include the name and email of the parent’s Apple Account that installed it.

  • No sales pitch to your child.

    Your child never sees a price or an offer.

    Your child never sees a price or an offer, and is never asked to get you to buy something.

  • Machines, not friends.

    Machines have no faces or feelings. Nothing pretends to be a friend.

    The machines in Mechna have no faces and no feelings, and nothing in Mechna pretends to be your child’s friend. The guide, Max, is a character: a senior apprentice at the academy.

  • Never used to train AI.

    We never use children’s data to train AI.

    We never use children’s data to train AI.

These are the rules Mechna follows. If one changes, this page will say so, and our Privacy Policy's change log will record it.

How we handle information: read our Privacy Policy

/// SECTOR 04 _ FOUNDER’S LOG

Why I’m building this

I founded Banana Flip, a learning platform for kids, and I built it for my daughter. Mechna started the same way, with one child in mind. This time it’s my son.

My son already uses AI in some ways. Given the world he’s growing up in, I want him to understand how it works, inside and out, not just how to use it. So I went looking for something built for kids that would show him how a machine actually decides, and that he’d want to keep playing. I couldn’t find it. Most of what I found either put a child in front of a live AI chatbot, or taught “AI” as buzzwords and quizzes.

So I started building my own.

Sunny Kapoor, Founder

Why I’m building this

I founded Banana Flip, a learning platform for kids, and I built it for my daughter. Mechna started the same way, with one child in mind. This time it’s my son.

What I was looking for

My son already uses AI in some ways. Given the world he’s growing up in, I want him to understand how it works, inside and out, not just how to use it. So I went looking for something built for kids that would show him how a machine actually decides, and that he’d want to keep playing. I couldn’t find it. Most of what I found either put a child in front of a live AI chatbot, or taught “AI” as buzzwords and quizzes.

So I started building my own.

What Mechna is

Mechna Academy is a city of machines. Your child guesses how a machine decides, then opens it up to check. They learn what a machine can notice, how it learns, how it can be wrong, and who gets to decide what it’s for. They never talk to a live AI. There are no ads, no accounts and no in-game purchases, and a child’s progress stays on the device. It starts at 8 to 10, and it’s built to grow with them, all the way to 18.

Building it with him

He’s in the front seat. He builds Mechna with me, he plays every version, and his reactions decide what stays and what goes. As a dad, that alone makes it worth doing.

Why I’m the one building this

I’ve spent more than twelve years in product, most of it building trust platforms: systems where being careful with people’s data, and honest about what the software does, is the entire point. That includes privacy-by-design, AI governance that keeps a human in the loop, and evidence trails meant to hold up under scrutiny. Earlier in my career I worked at Curriculum Associates on i-Ready.

I tell you this because you deserve to know who is handling your child’s play, and who decides what this product is allowed to claim. We won’t claim outcomes we haven’t earned. The founding families will help us find out what works, and we’ll tell you honestly what we learn.

Founding families

We’re opening a small number of free founding-family places to parents who are wrestling with the same questions: what AI means, and how our kids can really learn about it. If that’s you, I’d love to hear what your child makes of it.

Questions or ideas: team@mechna.ai

Sunny Kapoor, Founder

/// SECTOR 05 _ ANSWERS

Questions parents ask.

What is Mechna?

Mechna Academy is an iPad and Mac academy for children aged 8 to 10, set in a city full of machines. In each mission, a child guesses how a machine decides, then opens its Peek Hatch to check, changes one thing and tests it on a case it has never seen. Children learn how AI works this way, and they never chat with an AI.

Does my child talk to an AI in Mechna?

No. Your child never chats with anyone in Mechna, and never with an AI: there’s no chatbot and no live AI model in the app. Mechna Academy teaches children how AI machines work by testing them. The machines run on rules and examples written and checked in advance, and the guide, Max, is a character, not an AI companion.

Who is Mechna for, and when can we play?

Mechna is for children aged 8 to 10 on iPad or Mac. It is tested on iPad Air (M3). Places are limited.

How much does Mechna cost?

Inside the app, there’s nothing to buy and no prices. Mechna has no ads, and your child never sees a price or an offer.