Uncovering Youth’s Needs and Concerns About AI Through Art-Based Participatory Design

As generative AI becomes embedded in adolescents’ everyday lives, it is important to understand what young users want from these systems, what concerns they hold, and how these perspectives should shape youth-centered AI design. This study investigates early adolescents’ perspectives on generative AI through a four-week art-based participatory workshop with 55 middle school students. Using comic storytelling, AI-themed clay modeling, and reflective discussions, participants expressed their understandings, concerns, and expectations through visual and narrative artifacts. Inductive qualitative analysis revealed recurring patterns in how youths imagined AI’s roles, articulated tensions around autonomy, dependency, and responsibility, and identified values important for maintaining agentic relationships with AI. Our findings show that participants came to recognize the importance of autonomy, critical understanding, and relational boundaries in engaging with AI. Based on these insights, we propose design implications for youth-centered AI systems that support agency and developmentally appropriate, ethically grounded engagement.