Tools for Thought: Understanding, Protecting, and Augmenting Human Cognition with Generative AI—From Vision to Implementation

Building on the first Tools for Thought (TfT) workshop at CHI 2025, we invite researchers, designers, and practitioners to further operationalise approaches for the design, usage, and evaluation of Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) as a TfT. The first goal of the workshop is to put into focus which outcomes a TfT should help people achieve to effectively augment their cognition while avoiding its erosion. Secondly, we will explore how to achieve these outcomes through design and usage strategies. Third, the workshop will also address what a TfT needs for its successful adoption and integration into people’s flow, so that they can benefit from the tools’ potential in their own terms. By focussing on these three research goals, the workshop aims to further develop and advance the multidisciplinary TfT community interested in exploring research frameworks, theories, methods, and approaches to conceptualising, designing, and researching GenAI as a TfT.

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Publication Details

Published
2026-04-13
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1145/3772363.3778733
Primary Topic
Embodied and Extended Cognition
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
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article

Tools for Thought: Understanding, Protecting, and Augmenting Human Cognition with Generative AI—From Vision to Implementation

Zelun Tony Zhang, Srishti Palani, Kenneth Holstein, Advait Sarkar et al.
Embodied and Extended Cognition
article

Tools for Thought: Understanding, Protecting, and Augmenting Human Cognition with Generative AI—From Vision to Implementation

Zelun Tony Zhang, Srishti Palani, Kenneth Holstein, Advait Sarkar, Yue Fu, Anjali Singh, Sean Rintel, Lev Tankelevitch, Jessica He, Nick von Felten, Leon Reicherts, Anuschka Schmitt, Gonzalo Ramos, Haotian Li, Zhitong Guan, Peter Dalsgaard
article en

Abstract

Building on the first Tools for Thought (TfT) workshop at CHI 2025, we invite researchers, designers, and practitioners to further operationalise approaches for the design, usage, and evaluation of Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) as a TfT. The first goal of the workshop is to put into focus which outcomes a TfT should help people achieve to effectively augment their cognition while avoiding its erosion. Secondly, we will explore how to achieve these outcomes through design and usage strategies. Third, the workshop will also address what a TfT needs for its successful adoption and integration into people’s flow, so that they can benefit from the tools’ potential in their own terms. By focussing on these three research goals, the workshop aims to further develop and advance the multidisciplinary TfT community interested in exploring research frameworks, theories, methods, and approaches to conceptualising, designing, and researching GenAI as a TfT.

University of Washington (US), University of St.Gallen (CH), Aarhus University (DK), Lake Washington Institute of Technology (US), Cambridge Scientific (United States) (US), Microsoft Research Asia (China) (CN), Munich Center for Quantum Science and Technology (DE), Salesforce (United States) (US), Microsoft Research (United Kingdom) (GB), Carnegie Mellon University (US), The University of Texas at Austin (US), London School of Economics and Political Science (GB)
Reduced inequalities
Openalex Percentile: Top 30%
Embodied and Extended Cognition
DOISourceOpenAlex
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