By Girls Who Code and UCLA Computer Science Equity Project, White Paper
Generative AI (GenAI) has become ubiquitous, yet many students still lack meaningful access to learning about what it is and how it works. With Stuart Foundation funding, Girls Who Code and UCLA’s Computer Science Equity Project conducted a study in 2024 to investigate how adolescents are making sense of GenAI and its impacts on their identities, futures, and actions.
The Girls Who Code Self-Paced Program (which has since evolved into the Pathways Program) introduces GenAI topics and practices to high school students while centering questions of ethics and social impacts. To investigate students’ perspectives on AI, we conducted 15 program observations, analyzed 320 students’ AI reflection projects, and led in-depth interviews with 25 students from across the state of California.
Key Findings
Nearly half of interviewed students (12 of 25) held predominantly positive views of GenAI, focusing on its potential benefits for education, addressing global ethical problems, and advancing their careers. These students viewed AI as a useful tool, a force for good, and even as “magical.” This positive perspective was also reflected across nearly all 320 students’ AI reflection projects as well. However, a significant portion of interviewed students (10 of 25) demonstrated sophisticated thinking about AI’s complexity by holding both positive and negative views simultaneously. These critical perspectives on both the good and bad of AI also surfaced across 197 of the 320 student projects analyzed, as students described an idea they had for AI’s usefulness in society, as well as the ethical issues that such a creation might cause. These students appreciated AI’s potential, while remaining critically aware of its limitations and risks. Notably, very few students (3 of 25 interviewed) held entirely negative views, suggesting that when provided with comprehensive education, young people develop balanced perspectives on AI technology.
