PaperTok: Exploring the Use of Generative AI for Creating Short-form Videos for Research Communication

The dissemination of scholarly research is critical, yet researchers often lack the time and skills to create engaging content for popular media such as short-form videos. To address this gap, we explore the use of generative AI to help researchers transform their academic papers into accessible video content. Informed by a formative study with science communicators and content creators (N=8), we designed PaperTok, an end-to-end system that automates the initial creative labor by generating script options and corresponding audiovisual content from a source paper. Researchers can then refine based on their preferences with further prompting. A mixed-methods user study (N=18) and crowdsourced evaluation (N=100) demonstrate that PaperTok's workflow can help researchers create engaging and informative short-form videos. We also identified the need for more fine-grained controls in the creation process. To this end, we offer implications for future generative tools that support science outreach.

Creativity in the Age of AI: Evaluating the Impact of Generative AI on Design Outputs and Designers' Creative Thinking

As generative AI (GenAI) increasingly permeates design workflows, its impact on design outcomes and designers' creative capabilities warrants investigation. We conducted a within-subjects experiment where we asked participants to design advertisements both with and without GenAI support. Our results show that expert evaluators rated GenAI-supported designs as more creative and unconventional ("weird") despite no significant differences in visual appeal, brand alignment, or usefulness, which highlights the decoupling of novelty from usefulness-traditional dual components of creativity-in the context of GenAI usage. Moreover, while GenAI does not significantly enhance designers' overall creative thinking abilities, users were affected differently based on native language and prior AI exposure. Native English speakers experienced reduced relaxation when using AI, whereas designers new to GenAI exhibited gains in divergent thinking, such as idea fluency and flexibility. These findings underscore the variable impact of GenAI on different user groups, suggesting the potential for customized AI tools.