Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning education are entering the classrooms, and yet, the link between their introduction and the development of metacognitive components in students still needs to be addressed. We conducted an experiment with 138 elementary school students (aged 8–11) and tested how the manipulation of a learning robot affected their understanding of the basics of AI, as well as their metacognitive knowledge such as growth mindset, status of error, learning by trial-and-error, and persistence. Results show a positive shift both in students’ AI knowledge and learning beliefs, and thus demonstrate the value of teaching the basics of how AI works to develop solid metacognitive knowledge that promotes learning. Future works should measure a lasting effect on students’ learning behavior and focus on teacher training in new AI activities.