Distributed Agency and Multimodal AI Interfaces

Luca Viganò is Professor at the Department of Informatics of King's College London, UK, where he heads the Cybersecurity Group. His research focuses on formal methods and tools for cybersecurity and privacy. He is particularly interested in formal analysis of socio-technical systems, whose security depends intrinsically on human users. He wrote a seminal paper on explainable security, where, in addition to more formal approaches, he has been investigating how fairy tales, films and other kinds of artworks can be used to explain cybersecurity and how telling (i.e., explaining notions in a formal, technical way) can be paired with showing through different forms of storytelling. Luca is also a playwright and screenwriter. His works have been published and produced in Italy, the UK and Russia. His short film “The First”, explores a future scenario where the rights of sentient beings clash with freedom, identity and ethical judgment.

Umberto Domanti is a second-year PhD student in the Experimental Research through Design, Art, and Technologies program at the Free University of Bozen-Bolzano. He graduated in Applied Cognitive Psychology at the University of Trieste. His interests include the study of episodic and semantic memory, imagination, and creativity, with a particular focus on how these processes contribute to the imagination of alternative pasts or futures. His PhD research lies within Human–Computer Interaction (HCI), drawing on theories and methods from experimental cognitive psychology. He investigates human and artificial creativity by looking at the underlying mechanisms that lead to a potential creative outcome. Moreover, Umberto integrates qualitative methodologies, such as speculative design, to investigate and reflect on the future possibilities of Human-AI Collaboration. He is also a Junior Member within the International Society for the Study of Creativity and Innovation (ISSCI). During the first year of his PhD, Umberto served as Local Chair for the ninth edition of the Marconi Institute for Creativity (MIC) Conference, held in Bolzano.

Angela Faiella is a Research Fellow at the Marconi Institute for Creativity (MIC), a multidisciplinary research lab at the University of Bologna (Italy), and a subject expert for the university course Cyber-Creativity and Innovation. She is also a member of the AI Task Force within the International Society for the Study of Creativity and Innovation (ISSCI). She obtained her PhD in Cognitive Psychology from the University of Trieste (Italy) in 2023. Her research focuses on the cognitive correlates of creativity and imagination, with a particular interest in human–AI interaction. She investigates how individuals perceive their creative self-beliefs in the context of AI, exploring ways to enhance them. Furthermore, she examines the role of creativity in future thinking, emphasizing its importance for imagining transformative and long-term futures in an era of accelerated responses and decision-making. Angela has also been part of the organizing committee for the Marconi Institute for Creativity Conference, an international event dedicated to creativity research, since 2023.

Caterina Moruzzi is a Chancellor's fellow (tenure-track assistant professor) in the Institute for Design Informatics, University of Edinburgh. Her research lies at the intersection between human and artificial creativity, philosophy of art, and the philosophy of Artificial Intelligence (AI). As BRAID Research Fellow, she is leading a project in collaboration with Adobe to promote the responsible integration of AI tools into creative practices. Caterina actively engages in panel discussions and conferences that convene stakeholders from academia, industry, and policy-making spheres to discuss the impact of AI on the creative sector. To promote interdisciplinary and intersectoral collaborations on the topic, in 2024, she started the research cluster "Creativity, AI, and the Human" at the Edinburgh Futures Institute. Caterina holds a Ph.D. in philosophy from the University of Nottingham (2018) and an artist diploma in piano performance from the Conservatorio G.B. Martini, Bologna (2014). Her scholarly work has been published in journals such as the European Journal for Philosophy of Science, British Journal of Aesthetics, ACM Communication Design Quarterly, Leonardo (MIT Press), IEEE CG&A, as well as in conference proceedings, including the CHI conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems and the International Conference on Computational Creativity (ICCC).

Chiara Natali is a PhD Candidate in Computer Science at the University of Milano-Bicocca. Her research examines how intentional friction in interaction design (such as cognitive forcing functions and desirable difficulties) can sustain user agency and appropriate reliance in human–AI decision-making, with applications in medical AI and decision support. She has teaching experience in interaction design and HCI (2023-2024), delivered hands-on tutorials on assessing reliance (INTERACT23, HHAI23), and co-organized international workshops on “Frictional AI” (HHAI 2024–2025) and “Algorithmic Authority & AI Influence in Decision Settings” (HAI 2024), alongside service as Proceedings Chair and Publicity Chair for HHAI 2025. Her work has been recognized with the David B. Martin Best Paper Award (ECSCW 2025), Best Paper at the XAI World Conference (2024), and Best Doctoral Consortium Paper at ACM CHItaly (2023). She was awarded the Swiss Government Excellence Scholarship (ESKAS No. 2024.0002) for a year as Visiting Research Fellow at IDSIA (SUPSI), Lugano (2024-2025). She contributes to national and international standardization through UNINFO/UNI CT 533 (Italian mirror to ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 42), focusing on trustworthiness.

Anna Rezk-Parker is a Postdoctoral Research Associate in Computer Science at the University of Glasgow, working on developing tools and methodologies for users to engage in participatory audits of search and information retrieval systems as part of the Responsible AI UK-funded PHAWM project. Her research interests include recommender systems, personalization, AI in media and journalism, auditing for responsible AI, and designing for user agency. Previously, she completed her PhD in Design Informatics at the University of Edinburgh in collaboration with the BBC R&D, funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council. In her interdisciplinary research practice, she examines how user agency can contribute to addressing challenges that arise in automated systems, which are paradoxically designed to relieve users of agency. Her work has been published at various ACM venues and has been recognized with an Honorable Mention award at CHI and a Best Paper award at ICIDS. As a researcher on the Right 2 Roam project at Abertay University, she conducted community-driven social justice research through serious game workshops to inform evidence-based urban design policy. She also contributed to the Fixing the Future project, developing Right to Repair ideation cards as an awareness-building tool about IoT device repair laws in the UK and EU.

Mario Mirabile is a Research Fellow at the University of Bologna, Italy. He is pursuing a PhD in Information Technology at the University of Santiago de Compostela (USC), Spain. He is currently developing trust-aware multi-agent systems designed to improve financial literacy and support individual and collective empowerment. His research interests focus on Trustworthy Artificial Intelligence, multi-agent systems, socio-technical governance, human-AI interaction, finance, and creativity. Mario is a Research Fellow at the Future Impact Group + Oxford Martin AI Governance Initiative (2025-present), a member of the Italian Association for Artificial Intelligence (2025-present), a member of the Coalition for Independent Technology Research (2023-present), and the Executive Officer & Secretary of the International Political Science Association (2021-present). He served at a European tech-policy research center (2024), contributing to high-profile studies for the European Commission on AI and digitalization. He held research roles at the Centro Singular de Investigación en Tecnoloxías Intelixentes (CiTIUS) in Spain (2024) and senior AI consulting positions (2023-2024), with applied experience in computer vision and human–machine interfaces for industry. As co-founder and Executive Vice-President of “South Working - Lavorare dal Sud” (2020-present), he led national innovation initiatives and contributed to policy on digital infrastructure and remote work. He also advised the Italian Ministry of Culture (2021-2022) as an invited expert, shaping digital transformation initiatives that impacted over 2,000 local administrations. His work has been featured in more than 600 media pieces (e.g., BBC, Financial Times, Deutsche Welle, Corriere della Sera).