Exploring personal data and AI as resources for self-examination

Team

Timeframe

2018 ↝ 2023

Keywords

  • Speculative Design
  • Metadata
  • Research Through Design
  • Interaction Design
  • Digital Archives
  • Artificial Intelligence

Outcome

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    Interviews with 17 introspective practitioners
  • ↬

    7 speculative Introspective AI services

The Core Idea

Introspection is the practice of looking inward and examining one’s own thoughts, emotions, values, and desires. It is different from simply reflecting on memories; it is the critical practice of assessing past experiences and patterns in one’s life and asking questions about what has been achieved and what one wants for the future .

This project investigates how Artificial Intelligence (AI), combined with the archives of personal digital data that increasingly mediate our everyday lives, might act as a resource for introspection. We explore how AI can generate alternative perspectives on one’s life and surface paradoxes that this might raise.

Background & Framing

As interactive technologies and personal data archives continue to grow, people’s practices of self-reflection are expanding. Prior research in HCI has shown how photos, music, social media, and location traces can support reflective or nostalgic experiences. Yet, considerably less research has focused on the specific practice of introspection—the active confrontation of one’s values, biases, and future aspirations through engagement with personal data.

AI presents intriguing possibilities in this space. While existing commercial applications often use AI to guide mindfulness or organize journaling, these services rarely embrace the complexity and ambiguity of people’s digital records. Our work instead asks: how might AI operate as a design material to create interactive, evolving resources for introspection?

Related Publications ↘

Acknowledgments

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    This research is supported by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC).

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