[TMP-051] Exploring the Role of AI in Amplifying Creative Potential: Fostering Ownership In Human-AI Collaborations
The project explores how to maintain ownership in AI-assisted creative processes. By studying how people interact with an AI to illustrate children's books, the researchers hope to understand the balance between human effort and AI assistance.
Novel AI systems help individuals maximize creativity by rapidly prototyping ideas from sketches or descriptions. Generative AI bridges the gap between a person's thoughts and their physical creation, in contrast to traditional methods that demand more time, effort, and involvement, often tied to ownership and agency. As AI reduces the work required for results, users report feeling less ownership and agency, with unclear boundaries even in legal terms. Understanding how to balance these factors is key to fostering ownership while leveraging AI's potential.
This project aims to explore this balance through an interactive exhibition at a science museum, where visitors will collaborate with an AI to illustrate a children's book based on rough sketches or prompts. Participants can choose a sketch or create their own, and after completing an illustration, decide to sign it with their name, the AI's name, or both. The artwork will be displayed on a billboard, and participants will answer a few brief questions about self-efficacy. The interaction will be logged to track effort, ownership, and intervention levels. This study will gather data through observations and interviews to analyze correlations between time, effort, ownership, and self-efficacy, offering insights into promoting ownership in AI-assisted creativity.
This project led to the development of three unique museum exhibitions featured at the Deutsches Museum, Bonn Museum, and Alte Pinakothek. At the core of each exhibition is a generative AI system that enables visitors to co-create children’s book stories, giving them the freedom to shape the narrative using drawing inputs. This AI system is specifically tailored for a museum installation environment, ensuring it remains offline and highly reliable.
A notable feature of the Alte Pinakothek installation (developed in collaboration with Sheffield University) is the physical prototype’s symmetrical design, which embodies the collaborative dynamic between human creativity and AI assistance. The visitor is seated on one side, interacting directly with the system. Opposite them, a glowing cube represents the AI presence, actively responding to the user’s inputs. This cube subtly illuminates and adapts based on the AI’s activity, providing visual cues that guide and inspire users through the story-making process.
Additionally, two master’s theses were developed within this project’s framework, and initial data from over 300 user interactions at the Deutsches Museum has already been gathered. These interactions will form the basis for future research publications, offering valuable insights into the role of AI in creative storytelling and user engagement within museum settings. There is a planned paper submission of the project.
Tangible Outcomes
- Backend: https://github.com/dorj222/storybookcreator
- Video presentation summarizing the project
Partners:
- Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München (LMU), Steeven Ville and Sebastian Feger
- Sheffield Hallam University Enterprises Limited, Daniela Petrelli