What is your professional background and primary research domain?  

I am originally from the United States and I have undergraduate degrees in Physics and Studio Art from the University of Virginia. Aside from academic research I have also worked in a Science Museum and curated several science communication exhibitions. After having been awarded a US-Danish Fulbright Fellowship in 2015, I relocated to Denmark, which allowed me to study how complex phenomena can be effectively conveyed through visual media. Then I continued my education by pursuing a Master’s degree in Physics at the University of Copenhagen, exploring how citizen science games can help solve natural science problems and subsequently earned a PhD in Information Communication Technology from Aarhus University in 2022. My PhD research, titled "Exploring Human-AI Interaction in Hybrid Intelligence and Creativity through Crowdsourcing and Games", bridged the domains of citizen science, cognitive science, creativity, digital games, and human-AI interaction. 

Currently, I am a fellow at AIAS - Aarhus Institute of Advanced Studies co-funded by SHAPE. Furthermore, I am Junior Center Director at the Center for Hybrid Intelligence and affiliated with the Interacting Minds Center. My primary research focuses on areas like citizen science, participatory futures, psychometric creativity assessment, human-AI co-creativity, and hybrid intelligence.

What are your ongoing research projects in SHAPE about? 

My ongoing research projects in SHAPE primarily center around the development and societal application of crea.visions, a computational co-creativity tool designed to democratize the discourse on societal issues and future possibilities. Through this tool, we aim to facilitate broader public involvement in complex dialogues often reserved for policymakers and academics.

The project incorporates a multi-layered approach that brings together machine learning, human-computer interaction, and community citizen science. We adapted the crea.visions platform for a location-specific model - a custom-trained version in Aarhus in collaboration with Aarhus Municipality during the summer of '23. This localized adaptation utilizes key concepts from the Community Citizen Science (CCS) framework, emphasizing participatory democracy and co-design with the community.

In terms of impact, the research aims to increase understanding about the role of human-AI co-creative technologies in societal discourse. We aspire to build dialogues between the public, policymakers, and researchers to collaboratively explore the future societal impact of ongoing research projects. The project specifically aims to visualize and address societal challenges within Denmark, connecting these challenges to ongoing research at Aarhus University (AU).

In 2023, Janet won Circle U.'s interdisciplinary research prize ICUP for the crea-visions project: Inter Circle U. Prize 2023: Janet Rafner - Crea.Visions - YouTube

What future projects do you have in the pipeline?  

The initial phases of crea.visions effectively engaged the public, but lacked depth in addressing societal challenges due to limited stakeholder inclusion. The collaboration with Aarhus Municipality in the Aarhus pilot bridged this gap. With the AIAS fellowship, I'm extending the dialogue to encompass all Aarhus University (AU) researchers. I'm preparing a new interface and communication strategy for AU researchers across all faculties to share the societal ramifications of their studies through AI-enhanced visuals in crea.visions. I'll establish online and onsite forums where the public, policymakers, and researchers can collectively discuss the societal implications of ongoing R&D efforts. The digital platform will feature AI-driven visuals, related content, and interactive forums. Initial entries will come from my AIAS colleagues, setting a foundation for more extensive AU researcher involvement. While Crea.visions will cater to both English and Danish audiences, I also plan to pilot this initiative across Europe, in partnership with the European Quantum Technology Flagship.

Beyond this, I am also co-leading projects with companies such as Adobe and Autodesk, exploring how hybrid intelligence algorithms, interfaces, and narratives affect technology acceptance of AI tools with creative professionals. This work is done in collaboration with Professor Jacob Sherson, director of the Center for Hybrid Intelligence. I am also working on a project with Associate Professor Franziska Günzel-Jensen on how generative, co-creative tools are utilized by student entrepreneurs.

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Recent academic publications by Janet Rafner:

Rafner, J., Zana, B., Dalsgaard, P., Biskjaer, M. M., & Sherson, J. (2023, June). Picture This: AI-Assisted Image Generation as a Resource for Problem Construction in Creative Problem-Solving. In Proceedings of the 15th Conference on Creativity and Cognition (pp. 262-268).

Rafner, J., Zana, B., Beolet, T., Buyukguzel, S., Michel, E., Maiden, N., ... & Sherson, J. (2023). Crea. visions: A Platform for Casual Co-Creation with a Purpose Envisioning the Future through Human-AI Collaboration with Multiple Stakeholders. In Proceedings of the 2023 Conference on Computational Creativity.