CXL will have a number of activities at BritCHI '26, the British Computer Society’s Interaction Specialist Group’s 39th Conference.
Anh Pham and Lars Erik Holmquist will present the full paper Between Thought and Expression: How Generative AI and Brain Data Shape the Future of Creative Practice. This paper explores how EEG-derived brain signals can be integrated into Generative AI systems to support new forms of human-AI co-creation. Through three interconnected studies involving co-design workshops, expert interviews, and an exploratory EEG-modulated prototype, we examine how physiological data can influence generative visual experiences while maintaining human creative agency. The research introduces the Shared Neural Streams concept and highlights opportunities for developing more personalised, responsive, and transparent AI-supported creative interactions.
Pham and Holmquist will also present the short paper Beyond Generation: How Creative Practitioners Use GenAI to Articulate, Evaluate, and Preserve Creative Judgement. This paper investigates how experienced creative practitioners maintain critical thinking and creative autonomy when working with Generative AI. Drawing on qualitative interviews with eight experienced practitioners, our findings suggest that GenAI does not simply replace or preserve critical thinking. Instead, it can redistribute creative judgement across different stages of the creative process, from articulating intentions and developing prompts to evaluating, verifying, refining, and rejecting AI-generated outputs. We identify five design opportunities for developing GenAI systems that support reflective, practitioner-led creativity rather than simply automating content production.
Glyn Lawson and Yi Ning Chuah will present the short paper
Trust Me, I'm Human! Comparing Attitudes Towards AI versus Human Junior Colleagues in Medical Device Design. This research explores how people perceive and trust design recommendations generated by AI compared with those provided by human colleagues in a safety-critical design context. Using a mixed-methods approach, the study found that participants were generally more willing to trust recommendations attributed to a human designer, even when the recommendations themselves were identical. The work contributes to growing discussions around human-AI collaboration, highlighting the importance of accountability, transparency, and trust in the adoption of AI technologies within regulated industries such as medical device development.
Wanqi Wang will participate in the BritCHI Doctoral Consortium, where she will present a PhD abstract outlining her research on designing an AI conversational partner to support inclusive engagement with contemporary art for visually impaired audiences. The consortium will provide an opportunity to receive feedback from researchers and experts, helping to further refine the project's direction and methodology.
Kevin Hunt, Sam Nemeth and Lars Erik Holmquist will present the alt.britchi paper
AI is a Gungfly: Why We Need New Mental Models for LLMs. In this forum, aimed at challenging assumptions and surfacing overlooked perspectives, we will talk about how the view users have on AI models does not always match the reality of what these models do. Based upon a synthetic ethncography, we suggest users accept the data landscape of LLMs is not reliable terra firma, but more like a
gungfly – a Swedish term for a place where the ground is unstable and changeable.
Lars Erik Holmquist will present a Community Showcase based on his article
Intelligence on Tap: Artificial Intelligence as a New Design Material, originally published in 2017 in ACM Interactions. It predicted that AI would become available for designers to create new products without requiring advanced technical knowledge. This is now happening, but we are still only in the beginning of this revolution. The session will discuss the opportunities and risks of this new material, and how it is the responsibility of HCI researchers and educators to master it.
Finally, Seher Singh and Wanqi Wang will be student volunteers at the conference.
Wanqi Wang will participate in the BritCHI Doctoral Consortium, where she will present a PhD abstract outlining her research on designing an AI conversational partner to support inclusive engagement with contemporary art for visually impaired audiences. The consortium will provide an opportunity to receive feedback from researchers and experts, helping to further refine the project's direction and methodology.
