Image by Xavi Cabrera, from Unsplash

LegoGPT: AI Turns Text Prompts Into Lego Creations

• Written by Kiara Fabbri Former Tech News Writer
• Fact-Checked by Sarah Frazier Former Content Manager

Researchers at Carnegie Mellon University have introduced LegoGPT, a new AI system that builds real-world Lego creations from written descriptions.

In a rush? Here are the quick facts:

• It ensures physical stability using physics-aware rollback.
• Trained on 47,000 stable Lego structures and GPT-4o captions.
• Uses only 8 brick types within a 20×20×20 space.

It’s the first AI of its kind that not only follows a text prompt—like “a streamlined, elongated vessel”—but also ensures the resulting structure is physically stable and can be built, brick by brick.

“To achieve this, we construct a large-scale, physically stable dataset of LEGO designs, along with their associated captions,” the team explained in their research paper .

LegoGPT was trained using over 47,000 stable Lego models paired with detailed captions generated by GPT-4o. These were built from 3D shapes, turned into Lego structures, then tested for real-world stability using physics simulations.

Each structure was also described from 24 angles so the AI could learn what various designs should look like in words.

The team used a special technique called “physics-aware rollback,” where unstable parts of a design are removed and rebuilt until the whole structure holds up. This improved build success rates from 24% to 98.8%.

The AI model, based on Meta’s LLaMA-3.2-Instruct, predicts which Lego brick to place next—similar to how ChatGPT predicts the next word. Every suggested brick is checked for placement, size, and potential collisions before being added to the model.

LegoGPT’s creations can be built by both humans and robots. “Our experiments show that LegoGPT produces stable, diverse, and aesthetically pleasing Lego designs that align closely with the input text prompts,” the researchers wrote.

For now, LegoGPT uses just eight basic brick types and works within a 20×20×20 space, but the team hopes to expand it.

Their full dataset, code, and model are free to access , so others can keep building on this research. Alternatively, you can just play around with their demo .

Image by Erik Mclean, from Unsplash

TikTok Chromebook Challenge Sparks Fires In Schools

• Written by Kiara Fabbri Former Tech News Writer
• Fact-Checked by Sarah Frazier Former Content Manager

A risky TikTok trend called the “Chromebook Challenge” is spreading across schools in the U.S., with students deliberately trying to set their school-issued laptops.

In a rush? Here are the quick facts:

• Students are setting Chromebooks on fire for a viral TikTok challenge.
• Items like paper clips and pencils are used to short-circuit laptops.
• One student was hospitalized.

The challenge involves kids jamming everyday items—like pencils, paper clips, or gum wrappers—into Chromebook USB or charging ports to short-circuit the device. The result? Smoking laptops and school evacuations.

NBC reports that fire officials say the short circuits can cause toxic smoke or fires, and lithium batteries inside the laptops could explode. In some areas, students have been hospitalized, as reported by Ars Technica .

In Plainville, Connecticut, one middle school student was hospitalized for smoke inhalation after a classmate “intentionally stuck scissors into a laptop,” said Superintendent Brian Reas, as reported by Ars Technica.

“Although the investigation is ongoing, the student involved will be referred to juvenile court to face criminal charges,” Reas added.

Axios reports that at least 30 such incidents have been reported in Denver Public Schools, according to spokesperson Scott Pribble. Reports “range from unsuccessful attempts to events which resulted in smoke, sparks or fire,” he said, as reported by Axios.

Nearby, Boulder Valley School District linked six fires to the trend, and the Colorado Springs Fire Department has responded to at least 16 incidents, as reported by Axios.

The problem isn’t limited to Colorado. Prince George’s County Public Schools in Maryland said it has had up to 10 reported cases. “In addition to posing serious safety hazards, these actions can lead to costly repairs and disciplinary consequences,” the district said, as reported by NBC.

Ars Technica reports that TikTok has now blocked searches for the term “Chromebook Challenge.” Users instead see a warning:

“Your safety matters Some online challenges can be dangerous, disturbing, or even fabricated.”

Despite TikTok’s action, officials warn the challenge continues to circulate on other platforms. Google, the maker of Chromebooks, has not commented publicly.