Mar Gonzalez-Franco
Research Scientist & Manager @ Google XR – SEATTLE, USA
Towards Human-AI symbiosis with XR
The arrival of AI puts additional pressure on redefining how humans will interact with machines. Until now, humans have been the brains that orchestrated what machines have done; however, with AI, we can see a future where this will need to happen in a cooperative way, and computers might even become fully independent in their actions and decisions.
This talk presents a future where AI becomes more interactive as humans use it via XR devices. For this, we will need better XR–AI interaction metaphors and better inputs to convey intent to the AI. This interactive approach has the potential to enable humans to evolve as AI evolves and unlock tremendous benefits for the general population.
Bio
Mar Gonzalez-Franco is a Research manager at Google AR & VR where she works on creating a new generation of Immersive Tech. She leads the Blended Intelligence Research and Devices team (BIRD). In their work, they explore how to blend human innate and artificial intelligences using multi-device and multi-modal futures enabled by ML.
Before joining Google, she was a Principal Researcher at Microsoft Research from 2016 to 2022, contributing to projects like Microsoft Teams avatars, Together mode, Soundscape, HoloLens, and Xbox. Her work on avatars became one of Time magazine’s Best Inventions of 2022 and reached over 270 million users. In 2022 she was awarded the IEEE VGTC Virtual Reality new significant researcher award.
Dr. Gonzalez-Franco holds a double major in Computer Science and Multimedia Engineering, a Master’s in Biomedical Engineering, and a Ph.D. in Immersive Virtual Reality and Clinical Psychology. Her academic work focused on how virtual experiences affect human body representation and cognition.
She has authored over 100 publications, holds 40+ patents, and has released several open-source toolkits for avatar and immersive systems. Recognized by IEEE and the NAE for her groundbreaking work, she continues to advance the field of immersive interaction with real-world impact.
