Misha Sra
John and Eileen Gerngross Assistant Professor, UCSB Computer Science Courtesy appointments in the Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering, Department of Psychological & Brain Sciences, the Media, Art & Tech program, Cognitive Science Program and the interdisciplinary Dynamical Neuroscience Program.Affiliated Faculty with the Center for Responsible Machine Learning, Center for Aging and Longevity Studies and Mind & Machine Inteligence. Director of the Human-AI Experience (HAX) Lab Email: sra@ucsb.edu || Orcid || Google Scholar
Shaping the Future of Human-AI Interaction
As AI evolves beyond passive tools into adaptive agents, and XR redefines our spatial and embodied interactions, the boundary between digital and physical worlds is dissolving. This shift presents amazing opportunities to rethink how humans and AI collaborate. Our research explores key questions at the intersection of interaction design, perception, cognition, and system engineering::
- How do we design interfaces that make AI’s capabilities intuitive, discoverable, and adaptable—moving beyond prompts and simple commands to rich, multimodal interactions?
- What new forms of collaboration and communication emerge when AI is not just a tool, but an active participant in creative, analytical, and decision-making processes?
- How can we design human-AI systems that dynamically learn from and respond to human behavior, enabling more fluid and trustworthy interactions?
- What are the social, cognitive, and ethical implications of AI systems that can both assist interactively and autonomously execute delegated tasks?
- In what ways do AI agents take on social roles—such as instructors, mentors, peers, or coaches—especially when embodied in XR and indistinguishable from humans?
- How do advances in human-AI partnerships reshape the way we work, learn, and create—unlocking outcomes neither could achieve alone?
To explore these questions, we take a design-driven and empirical approach, combining human-centered methods with system prototyping and evaluation. Our goal is to shape the next generation of human-AI systems that empower people, augment human potential, and redefine what is possible in human-machine collaboration.
Visual Summary of Recent Work
