Organizers

Guo Freeman (main contact) is an Associate Professor of Human-Centered Computing at Clemson University, USA. Her work has explored how interactive technologies such as digital games, live streaming, social VR, and generative AI shape interpersonal relationships and group behavior. Her most recent research focuses on the impact of generative AI on creative technology workers, such as indie game developers and creative live streamers.

Carlos Toxtli is an Assistant Professor in the Human-Centered Computing Department at Clemson University, USA. His work has explored the interaction of knowledge workers with AI technologies. He has studied how grassroots AI maker communities collaborate in the era of Generative AI, which democratizes participation and allows them to publish tools that help them with their work and others’.

Ruchi Panchanadikar is a Ph.D. Candidate in Human-Centered Computing at Clemson University, USA. Her work explores how generative AI shapes creative work practices, focusing on human-AI collaboration, creative agency, AI ethics, and responsible AI design. She studies how creative workers, including indie game developers, use generative AI tools and how these systems can better support creativity while mitigating risks such as bias, over-reliance, authorship concerns, and harms to creative labor.

Yang Hu is a Ph.D. Candidate in Human-Centered Computing at Clemson University, USA. His research examines how emerging technologies, such as AI, social VR, and live streaming, reshape how people connect, collaborate, and create. His recent work includes studies on how AI technologies reshape online content creation in live streaming, and his prior experience as a game developer and close connections with the game development community give him a grounded perspective on understanding generative AI’s evolving role in creative work in gaming.

Julian Frommel is an Assistant Professor in Interaction / Multimedia and coordinator of the AI & Media Lab at Utrecht University, Netherlands. He studies the benefits and harms of interactive systems, including games, human-centered artificial intelligence, and their intersection. He also combines this research interest with education, for example, teaching a graduate course on AI for Game Technology.

Regan Mandryk is a Professor of Computer Science and Canada Research Chair of Digital Gaming and Immersive Social Technologies at the University of Victoria, Canada. Her work focuses on player experience, innovating games that support social and emotional wellbeing, and combating things that undermine gaming’s benefits. Her recent work explores collaborative creativity in gaming and game-making, including how AI integrates into creative teams.

Christian Guckelsberger is a Computer Scientist, Art Historian and Assistant Professor in Creative Technologies at Aalto University, Finland. He leads the Autotelic Interaction Research (AIR) group, which seeks to understand, model and support self-directed behaviour in AI, in people, and in their interaction, bridging AI, HCI and psychology. Autotelic behaviour is critical for creativity, which consequently is a focus of Christian’s work. Amongst others, he studies the impact of present AI on creative practices to guide socially sustainable AI development and policy. In one of his latest projects, he leads a dialogue between artists and AI theory researchers to speculate about alternative creative AI futures.

Alena Denisova is a Senior Lecturer in Computer Science at the University of York, UK. Her research is driven by a broad interest in game development, focusing on how the games industry operates and the challenges developers face. A key aspect of her work involves evaluating and improving design and development workflows through traditional practices and emerging technologies. Consequently, her recent work explores human-AI co-creation, examining how generative AI shapes production pipelines.