Talk Title:  The next Frontier of AI in Creative Spaces: Designing Human-Centered Co-Creative AI

Speaker:  Jeba Rezwana, Assistant Professor, Department of Computer & Information Sciences, Towson University

Location: IRB 4105 and Zoom

Abstract:  Human-AI co-creativity involves humans and AI collaborating as partners to produce creative artifacts, ideas or performances. This emerging paradigm represents a form of hybrid intelligence, enabling outcomes that neither could achieve alone. With the rapid rise of generative AI systems, human-AI co-creativity has gained unprecedented momentum across domains like design, music composition, visual art, and creative writing. Yet, the full potential of GenAI requires systems that go beyond content generation to effectively communicate, collaborate, understand and adapt to human needs and styles.
Unlike traditional human-computer interaction, human-AI co-creation creates more complex dynamics as 1) AI actively collaborates and shapes the creative process rather than merely responding to commands, 2) AI assumes human-like roles of partner, evaluator, and generator, and 3) AI contributes novel content blended with the user’s contribution. These dynamics surface critical challenges for Human-Centered co-creative AI: How should AI systems interact and communicate to foster collaboration and transparency? How can control be shared meaningfully between humans and AI to balance agency and AI autonomy? And how can generative AI adapt to diverse user needs and perceptions to augment both creativity and learning?
My research explores these questions by arguing that the next frontier of co-creative AI requires not just algorithmic competence but also prioritizes collaboration, transparency, user agency and human needs. Such systems should adapt to users’ creative goals and cognitive needs across different stages of creation, supporting dynamic and context-sensitive interactions. My research goal is to design and develop co-creative AI systems that are human-centered, inclusive, engaging, adaptable, and collaborative, empowering humans to create novel artifacts, develop skills, and solve complex problems in diverse creative sectors.

Bio: Jeba Rezwana is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Computer & Information Sciences at Towson University, where she directs the Human-Centered Computing (HCC) Lab. She earned her PhD in 2023 from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. Her research lies at the intersection of Human-Computer Interaction, Human-AI Co-Creativity, Human-Centered AI, and Ethical AI. Her long-term research goal is to design co-creative AI systems that are human-centered, collaborative, ethical, and adaptable that empower users in creating novel artifacts, developing skills, and solving complex problems across creative domains. Rezwana is actively engaged in the international research communities of HCI and computational creativity. She has served on the organizing committee of ACM Creativity & Cognition (C&C) as Posters and Demos Chair in 2025 and will continue in this role for C&C 2026. She has co-organized the XAIxArts (Explainable AI for the Arts) workshop at C&C since 2023 and contributed to the HAI-GEN (Human-Centered Generative AI) workshop at ACM IUI as both a program committee member and a panelist since 2022. Additionally, she served on the program committee for the Workshop on Computational Design and Computer-Aided Creativity at ICCC 2025 and as an Associate Chair for the CHI review committee. Through her research and service to the creative community, she envisions a future where technology and AI empower people to expand their creative and cognitive potential.