A Picture Is Worth a Thousand Tokens: Visual Communication for Human-AI Collaboration

Abstract

Recent developments in generative AIArtificial Intelligence have been changing how we live, work, and dream, revolutionizing many industries through their versatile capabilities. Humans bring goals, context, and judgement, while AIArtificial Intelligence contributes speed, scale, and computational power. However, a major barrier to the fluency between humans and AIArtificial Intelligence lies in communication, including expressing intent and understanding AIArtificial Intelligence behavior. In this talk, I will share my perspective on the key considerations that shape effective human-AIArtificial Intelligence communication via deliberately designed visualizations and interactions, through concrete examples spanning software development, graphic design, and beyond. These considerations offer a framework for thinking about how to design next-generation human-centered AIArtificial Intelligence systems.

Short Bio

Dr. Jian Zhao is an Associate Professor in the Cheriton School of Computer Science, University of Waterloo, where he directs the WVisdom research lab. His research lies in the intersection of Information Visualization, Human-Computer Interaction, Data Science, and Human-Centered AIArtificial Intelligence. He is dedicated to developing advanced interaction and visualization techniques that promote the interplay between humans, machines, and data. Dr. Zhao received his Ph.D. from the Department of Computer Science, University of Toronto, and joined the University of Waterloo in 2019 after working in the industry. Dr. Jian Zhao has published over 100 peer-reviewed papers at prestigious venues in InfoVis, HCI, and other fields, winning numerous recognitions including five Best Paper, nine Best Paper Honorable Mention, three Best Poster/Demo (Honorable Mention) awards. He is also the recipient of multiple accolades such as the CS-Can|Info-Can Early Career Research Award (2025), Ontario Early Researcher Award (2025-2030), Outstanding Performance Award (2024), Cheriton Faculty Fellowship (2025-2028), and NSERC Discovery Accelerator Supplement (2020-2025). He is a Senior Member of ACM and IEEE. He has directly supervised five postdocs, 13 PhDs, 14 Master’s, and numerous undergrads, as well as mentored many PhDs during his tenure in industry and academia. He is an Associate Editor of IEEE TVCG. He has also served on the program committees of many world-class conferences such as IEEE VIS and ACM CHI, and has taken critical roles in the organizing committees (e.g., Publication Chairs and Paper Chairs) of these venues. Additionally, he has experiences at various industry research labs such as Microsoft, IBM, and Adobe, and holds over 20 granted patents. His research has been covered in many media outlets including The Record, CBC News, and CityNews.

More information can be found on his website: www.jeffjianzhao.com.