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Artificial Intelligence’s impact on society is increasingly pervasive. While innovative educational programs are being developed, there has been little understanding of how students, especially pre-college aged students, construct understanding and gain practice with core ideas about AI or what concepts are most appropriate for what age-levels. In this paper, we discuss a cognitive interview study with high school students to better understand how students learn AI concepts. We aim to shed light on questions including: what is the range of background knowledge and experiences students are able to apply in encountering AI concepts; what concepts are most readily accessible and which are more challenging; what misconceptions do students bring to bear on AI problems; and how to help students approach AI concepts by leveraging related concepts, such as mathematical and computational thinking). Results from the exploratory study have the potential to provide important insights into AI learning for pre-college youth. These initial findings can inform further investigations to ground the design of learning and assessment in evidence-based learning progressions and grade-level performance expectations.