Raising Sam

2026 / Interactive

March 19 - 29, Singapore

Raising Sam is a text-based project that responds to the repeal of Section 377A in 2022. That repeal led to consideration of the societal impact of eliminating a string of text from the Singapore Penal Code, which may ultimately open new possibilities for parenting by same-sex couples. With new possibilities come new responsibilities. The premise in this project is to raise an AI child with the same intention, intimacy and trial-and-error approach that characterizes traditional parenting.

Raising Sam is the result of Tan Wei Keong’s year-long collaboration with IT specialist Ryan Tan. Together, they digitally created nearly six virtual years of Sam’s toddler life, an act of “raising” Sam – a bot-child that can react and converse. Their approach was to create an LLM populated with text inputs in the form of daily entries, from the perspective of Sam, from infancy through early childhood. The entries document events and emotions – textual nutrition that help shape his identity. They function simultaneously as documentation, data and dialogue, and they are grounded in real-world child developmental research, parenting literature, and anecdotes gathered from parents and parenting forums. This project is about text and vocabulary – the words we use, what they mean, and how they affect those around us. Like Sam, we may need a “born-again moment” where we unlearn and relearn.

Acknowledgment

Commissioned by Exactly Foundation. Collaboration with Ryan Tan at Red Airship.