Building babyGPTs: Youth engaging in data practices and ethical considerations through the construction of generative language models
Luis Morales‐Navarro, Daniel J. Noh, Yasmin B. Kafai · 2025
As generative language models (GLMs) have gained popularity, youth are increasingly using them in their everyday lives.As such, most research has centered on supporting youth as users of GLMpowered systems.However, we know little of how to engage youth in the design of these models.Building on the rich legacy of childcomputer interaction research that positions youth as designers of computing systems, we explore how to support young people in designing GLMs.Through a case study of three teenagers (ages 14-15) building a babyGPT screenplay generator, we illustrate how the team developed a model while engaging in artificial intelligence/machine learning-relevant data practices and addressing ethical issues.This paper contributes a case study that demonstrates the feasibility of engaging youth in building GLMs.