Reflecting Human Values in XAI: Emotional and Reflective Benefits in Creativity Support Tools

2025-06-20

AI Summary

Current evaluations of Creativity Support Tools (CSTs) and eXplainable AI (XAI) largely neglect user well-being. This study addresses this gap by proposing a user-centered XAI evaluation paradigm grounded in artistic creation contexts. We systematically develop a value-oriented assessment framework comprising four dimensions: emotional well-being, self-reflection, intrinsic capability development, and self-perception. For the first time, emotional health and reflective growth are established as core evaluation criteria for XAI in creative tools—challenging the prevailing task-performance-centric evaluation paradigm. Drawing on a systematic review of CST evaluation literature and human-centered AI theory, we conduct conceptual modeling and issue framing, culminating in an actionable, theory-informed assessment metric system. Our work provides both theoretical foundations and practical guidance for value alignment, ethical design, and human-centered advancement of XAI in humanities and creative domains. (149 words)

Technology Category

• Humans and AI: Explainable AI (XAI) for Human Understanding
• Cognitive Modeling & Cognitive Systems: Computational Creativity
• Philosophy and Ethics of AI: Safety, Robustness & Trustworthiness

Application Category

• User Modeling, Personalization and Recommendation: Metrics for user behavior and evaluating success
• Search and Retrieval-Augmented AI: Web evaluation methodologies and metrics
• Semantics and Knowledge: Data modeling to support human-machine intelligence, including LLMs agents, intelligent system behavior, explanations, and user-friendly interactions

Abstract

In this workshop paper, we discuss the potential for measures of user-centric benefits (such as emotional well-being) that could be explored when evaluating explainable AI (XAI) systems within the arts. As a background to this, we draw from our recent review of creativity support tool (CST) evaluations, that found a paucity of studies evaluating CSTs for user-centric measures that benefit the user themselves. Specifically, we discuss measures of: (1) developing intrinsic abilities, (2) emotional well-being, (3) self-reflection, and (4) self-perception. By discussing these user-centric measures within the context of XAI and the arts, we wish to provoke discussion regarding the potential of such measures.

Problem

• Evaluating emotional well-being in XAI for arts
• Assessing user-centric benefits in creativity tools
• Exploring self-reflection measures in AI systems

Innovation

• User-centric measures in XAI evaluation
• Emotional well-being in creativity tools
• Self-reflection metrics for AI systems