“That Sounds Like ChatGPT !”: Youth Civic Literacies and Unhumanizing Generative AI

This design‐based study explored how youth civic literacies manifested as young people demystified GenAI—tinkering and playing with the tool in an informal setting. Students “unhumanized” GenAI, using its tools for civic and humanistic purposes. Analysis of ChatGPT logs, video/audio recordings, and artifacts indicated that students: (1) dissected, mimicked, and resisted GenAI; (2) employed an agentic, “robots‐in‐the‐loop” approach in considering their civic and personal futures; and (3) realized a techno‐optimism characterized by a lack of fear, sense of possibility, and joy. Collectively, these findings suggest that young people demystified GenAI in ways that encouraged civic innovation and expression while centering their own creativity, agency, and humanity. These activities paved the way for personal, social, and political explorations using GenAI. This article offers insight into the praxes of AI and civic literacy, providing opportunities for educators and researchers to support learners as they engage with (and critique) these technologies.