Although digital technology is an important part of young peoples lives, previous research implies that they have a limited understanding of what programming is and its connection to the digital devices they encounter every day. In order to create conditions for meaningful teaching in and about programming in technology education, more knowledge about younger students pre-understanding and experiences is needed. In the light of this, the aim of this case study was to explore young pupils descriptions of the concept programming, in connection with being introduced to programming as a teaching content in technology education. The study is based on semi-structured interviews with 16 children in year 1 (7-year-olds) in a primary school in Sweden. In their descriptions of programming as an activity, the pupils mainly used technological descriptions-a theory of artificial mind perspective. However, when they talked about the objects with which they associated programming, psychological descriptions-a theory of mind perspective-were more clearly present. Then, a less pronounced distinction between humans and machines was made. Anthropomorphic references were used, such as when the pupils referenced childrens culture such as movies and television programs. However, the term programming was difficult for many of the pupils to grasp. They also had difficulty in finding a function for programming, as well as explanations and arguments for why they learn programming in school. The results of this study indicate that these 7-year-old pupils perceive programming as something complex. This at the same time as they describe how programmed and programmed artefacts (including AI devices) are highly present in their everyday lives, in their leisure environments, and in school. This mirrors how technology has become an intelligent and active agent, rather than a mere tool in their lives-an aspect that teachers may forget to take advantage of.