Co-creating custom GPTs: an autoethnographic study of undergraduate students as partners in generative AI innovation

This study explores how undergraduate students co-created and evaluated custom Generative AI (GenAI) tools within a students-as-partners (SaP) framework. Undergraduate participants, within a Summer Scholarship program and in a placement coursework unit, collaborated with academic staff to design, test, and refine custom Generative Pre-trained Transformer chatbots (cGPTs), aligned with pedagogical goals. Using autoethnographic methodology and thematic analysis of student-authored reflections, we examine how students experienced this process as a form of partnership-driven learning. An inductive analysis of summer scholarship autoethnographic logs reveals insights into the iterative, unpredictable, and creative nature of working with GenAI. Abductive analysis of placement reflections, guided by SaP principles, highlights themes of agency, reciprocity, reflexivity, identity shift, authenticity, adaptability, and technology-pedagogy nexus. Synthesising both perspectives, we argue that co-creation with GenAI can extend the SaP paradigm to include GenAI tools. We also reflect on the ethical and pedagogical implications of GenAI in higher education and advocate for student voice as central to responsible innovation. By embedding partnership pedagogy into GenAI co-creation, this study offers a model for more inclusive, critical, and transformative engagement with emerging technologies in university settings.