CHI2025 Workshop on Tools for Thought:
Call for Participation
Research and Design for Understanding, Protecting, and Augmenting Human Cognition with Generative AI
Saturday, April 26, 2025 — Yokohama, Japan
About
We invite researchers, designers, practitioners, and provocateurs to explore what it means to understand and shape the impact of Generative AI (GenAI) on human cognition. GenAI radically widens the scope and capability of automation for work, learning, and creativity. While impactful, it also changes workflows, raising questions about its effects on cognition, including critical thinking and learning. Yet GenAI also offers opportunities for designing “tools for thought” that protect and augment cognition. Such systems provoke critical thinking, provide personalized tutoring, or enable novel ways of sensemaking, among other approaches.
How does GenAI change workflows and human cognition? What are opportunities and challenges for designing GenAI systems that protect and augment thinking? Which theories, perspectives, and methods are relevant? This workshop aims to develop a multidisciplinary community interested in exploring these questions to protect against the erosion, and fuel the augmentation, of human cognition using GenAI.
Submission Process
All submissions require EITHER a paper that is 2-4 pages in length [formatted according to the ACM article template with ‘sigconf’ style (\documentclass[sigconf,screen]{acmart}) (LaTeX template instructions), or ACM primary article template if using Microsoft Word (Word template instructions)]; OR a portfolio of work (accompanied by description of relevance). In either case, we encourage links to videos, visual or computational portfolios, prototypes etc.
Please submit work that highlights interesting points of discussion, opinions, open research questions, descriptions of user experiences and ongoing or planned research, around opportunities and challenges for designing GenAI systems that protect and augment human cognition.
Topics of interest for the position papers include (but are not limited to):
- What contemporary and historical theories and perspectives are relevant to understanding, protecting, and augmenting human thinking?
- What are the opportunities and challenges for designing GenAI systems that protect and augment human thinking?
- How do we study and measure the impact of current and novel GenAI systems for protecting and augmenting human thinking?
- What will the impact of Generative AI paradigms be on human skills and the workflows of which they are a part – what skills needs to be maintained without AI, what skills can be offloaded to AI, and what skills would be best augmented by AI?
- What are the principles or guidelines for designing GenAI systems that protect and augment human thinking?
Please submit your application via this submission form.
Submissions should include the following information:
- Corresponding author name
- Corresponding author email
- Corresponding author institution
- Short personal statement from each attending author on a submission. The statement should focus on relevant background, motivations, and interests for the workshop (max 150 words per statement).
- Submission title
- Submission keywords
- Submission URL (ensure we have read-access)
- URL to other supporting files, if applicable (e.g., videos, prototypes, visual or computational portfolios)
Workshop participants will be selected through a review process. Submissions will be reviewed by at least two members of the workshop’s organizing committee (ACM category: Reviewed). Submissions will be reviewed based on relevance to the workshop theme of “Understanding, Protecting, and Augmenting Human Cognition with Generative AI” as well as quality and diversity.
A subset of submissions will be selected for a lightning talk and panel discussion.
At least one author of each accepted paper must register for and attend the workshop. Note that, unlike in previous years, if you are only attending a workshop, there is no need to additionally register for the CHI conference. Registration for the conference is required if you are attending any other sessions.
The list of accepted papers will be posted on the website: https://ai-tools-for-thought.github.io/workshop/ and will be available for download prior to the workshop.
Key Dates
- Deadline for submissions: Thursday, February 13 2025
- Notifications of acceptance: Friday, February 28 2025
- Camera-ready: Friday, April 11 2025
- Day of Workshop: Saturday, April 26 2025
Feel free to join our Discord server, where you can ask questions, or discuss the topics of this workshop.
Workshop Program (Draft)
| Time | Activity |
|---|---|
| 09:00 - 09:30 | Welcome, ice-breaker, and coffee |
| 09:30 - 10:45 | Lightning talks + panel discussion: Impact of GenAI on Cognition and Workflows |
| 10:45 - 11:15 | Coffee break and informal demos |
| 11:15 - 12:30 | Lightning talks + panel discussion: Methods and Theories |
| 12:30 - 14:00 | Lunch break (informal networking and discussion) |
| 14:00 - 15:15 | Lightning talks + panel discussion: Designing for Cognitive Protection and Augmentation |
| 15:15 - 15:45 | Coffee break and informal demos |
| 15:45 - 17:00 | Co-ideation session: Mapping Opportunities |
| 17:00 - 17:30 | Next steps and closing |
Note that the workshop will be in-person only to facilitate in-depth discussion among all participants, and to avoid challenges in ensuring equitable opportunities for participation between in-person and remote attendees. While we acknowledge that this decision would unfortunately exclude those who cannot travel to attend in person, we believe that this trade-off would result in a superior experience for those who do attend, and is better aligned with the primary community-building aim of the workshop. Alongside synchronous in-person engagement, we will use our Discord server, which anyone is free to join, for asynchronous discussions before, during, and after the workshop.
Organizers
-
Lev TankelevitchSenior Researcher in Microsoft Research, within the Tools for Thought group. His research explores how to augment human agency in collaborative knowledge work, including using metacognition as a lens to understand and improve human-AI interaction, and to design GenAI systems that improve intentionality in collaboration. He has a background in applied behavioural science, having previously worked at the Behavioural Insights Team, and in cognitive psychology and neuroscience.
-
Elena GlassmanAssistant Professor at Harvard University's Paulson School Of Engineering and Applied Sciences. Her research focuses on building AI-resilient interfaces that support meta-cognition through a variety of novel interface features and affordances that enhance user's reading, writing, and sensemaking abilities.
-
Aniket KitturProfessor in the Human-Computer Interaction Institute in Carnegie Mellon's School of Computer Science. His research explores combining human and machine intelligence to scale up sensemaking and innovation in domains including scientific literature, decision making, productivity, and analogical design.
-
Mina LeeAssistant Professor in Computer Science, Data Science Institute, and Cognitive Science (affiliated) at the University of Chicago. Her research centers around Writing with AI, especially how AI is transforming our writing process, the content we produce, and our identities as writers. She was named one of MIT Technology Review's Korean Innovators under 35 in 2022.
-
Srishti PalaniSenior Researcher at Tableau Research. She researches at the intersection of Cognitive Science, Human-Centered AI and Human-Computer Interaction. Her research investigates how people think and behave while exploring, sensemaking and being creative and with Generative AI and information on the Web.
-
Majeed KazemitabaarPhD candidate at University of Toronto, where he is researching on and developing tools that balance productivity and cognitive engagement in AI-assisted programming. He has studied the impact of learning to code with AI on subsequent performance without AI, to measure the effects of overreliance on AI.
-
Jessica HeUX Designer at IBM Research, where she is a member of the Human-AI Collaboration team. Her work focuses on leveraging design to bridge the gap between user expectations and emerging AI technologies, encompassing topics including AI attribution, risk mitigation, and enhancing knowledge work.
-
Gonzalo RamosPrincipal Researcher at Microsoft Research at Redmond. He is part of the Human Centered AI and Experiences Group at Microsoft Research at Redmond, where he works at the intersection of HCI, Design, and AI to augment people's agencies and capabilities.
-
Advait SarkarResearcher at Microsoft, affiliated lecturer at the University of Cambridge, and honorary lecturer at University College London. He studies the effects of Generative AI on knowledge work, programming, and data analysis.
-
Yvonne RogersProfessor of Interaction Design at University College London. A central theme of her work is concerned with designing AI that augments human cognition.
-
Hari SubramonyamAssistant Professor (Research) at Stanford Graduate School of Education and Computer Science (by courtesy). He is also the Ram and Vijay Sriram Faculty Fellow at the Stanford Institute for Human-Centered AI. Subramonyam studies ways to augment human learning using AI by engaging in cognitively informed design practices.