Speaker: Dr. Duri Long

Title: Creative Interfaces: Design Research on AI Literacy and Human-AI Collaboration

Abstract: Increasingly, members of the public are having to make important decisions about how AI should be used in both their personal lives and society more broadly. At the same time, AI is impacting creative practices such as writing and making art, shaping our cultural production and co-creative interactions. There is an urgent need for research investigating how to support public agency surrounding AI, understand the ways in which AI is affecting our creative practices, and explore how to co-design human-centered AI systems with and for creative communities. Long will discuss her research agenda, which has focused on two key questions: 1) How can we foster public agency and critical decision-making surrounding AI? and 2) How can we develop computational systems that center and support human creativity? In this talk, she will discuss several ongoing projects related to designing creative learning experiences to broaden public AI literacy and studying human-AI collaboration in creative domains such as personal narrative writing and dance.

Bio: Dr. Duri Long is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Communication Studies at Northwestern University, with a courtesy appointment in Computer Science, where she leads the Creative Interfaces Research + Design Studio. She is a human-centered AI researcher interested in issues surrounding AI literacy and human-AI interaction. Long’s research looks at how humans interact and learn as a way of informing the design of public AI literacy interventions as well as the development of AI that can interact naturally and improvise creatively with people in complex social environments. She employs a variety of methodologies and theoretical frameworks in her research, drawing on the learning sciences, design research, and cognitive science. Long has experience working with artists and museums around the country to develop co-creative, embodied exhibits and art installations involving AI and technology. She holds a PhD in Human Centered Computing from Georgia Tech and degrees in Computer Science and Dramatic Art from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.