Children as creators, thinkers and citizens in an AI-driven future

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Generative Artificial Intelligence (AI) approaches open up new avenues of digital creation, and are simultaneously accompanied by societal and ethical implications such as the creation of Deepfakes and spread of misinformation, renewing our understanding of technical AI systems as socio-technical systems. Applications of, and media generated by generative AI techniques are abundantly present on social media platforms frequented by children, who are not yet aware of the existence of AI-manipulated media. Previous work has highlighted the importance of digital media literacy and AI literacy for children. In this work, we introduce middle school students to generative AI techniques as a tool for creation, while also focusing on critical discussion about their societal and ethical implications, and encouraging pro-activeness in being responsible consumers, creators and stakeholders of technology. We present learning activities that introduce 38 middle-school students to generative modeling, how it is used to generate Deepfakes, cues that help to recognize Deepfakes, and the spread and effects of misinformation. Students demonstrated an understanding that generative media may be believable, but not necessarily true, and can contribute to the spread of misinformation. They were also able to identify why misinformation may be harmful or lasting, drawing specific examples to social settings that indicate human-centered implications. Finally, students expressed opinions about policies surrounding the presence of Deepfakes on social media. This approach can be adopted to introduce students to other technical systems that constitute both productive applications and potential negative implications of technology.