# Creating and Evaluating Personas Using Generative AI: A Scoping Review of 81 Articles

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2504.04927 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2504.04927/

## Key facts

- Cited by 4 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Builds on 11 of its 33 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 7 Apr 2025.

## Builds on (most cited first, 11 of 11)

- [Event-based Vision: A Survey](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1904.08405/) (2019)
- [High Speed and High Dynamic Range Video with an Event Camera](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1906.07165/) (2019)
- [Events-to-Video: Bringing Modern Computer Vision to Event Cameras](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1904.08298/) (2019)
- [Back to Event Basics: Self-Supervised Learning of Image Reconstruction for Event Cameras via Photometric Constancy](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2009.08283/) (2020)
- [Event-Based Fusion for Motion Deblurring with Cross-modal Attention](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2112.00167/) (2021)
- [Event-based High Dynamic Range Image and Very High Frame Rate Video Generation using Conditional Generative Adversarial Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1811.08230/) (2018)
- [Object Tracking by Jointly Exploiting Frame and Event Domain](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2109.09052/) (2021)
- [Continuous-time Intensity Estimation Using Event Cameras](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1811.00386/) (2018)
- [Real-Time Intensity-Image Reconstruction for Event Cameras Using Manifold Regularisation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1607.06283/) (2016)
- [Deep Learning for HDR Imaging: State-of-the-Art and Future Trends](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2110.10394/) (2021)
- [Microsaccade-inspired Event Camera for Robotics](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2405.17769/) (2024)

## Built on by (most cited first, 4 of 4)

- [Using AI for User Representation: An Analysis of 83 Persona Prompts](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2508.13047/) (2025)
- [When LLMs Imagine People: A Human-Centered Persona Brainstorm Audit for Bias and Fairness in Creative Applications](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2602.00044/) (2026)
- [How to Model AI Agents as Personas?: Applying the Persona Ecosystem Playground to 41,300 Posts on Moltbook for Behavioral Insights](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2603.03140/) (2026)
- [Runtime Action Interference for AI Control of AlphaStar in StarCraft II](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2608.21398/) (2026)

## Abstract (arXiv)

As generative AI (GenAI) is increasingly applied in persona development to represent real users, understanding the implications and limitations of this technology is essential for establishing robust practices. This scoping review analyzes how 81 articles (2022-2025) use GenAI techniques for the creation, evaluation, and application of personas. The articles exhibited good level of reproducibility, with 61% of articles sharing resources (personas, code, or datasets). Furthermore, conversational persona interfaces are increasingly provided alongside traditional profiles. However, nearly half (45%) of the articles lack evaluation, and the majority (86%) use only GPT models. In some articles, GenAI use creates a risk of circularity, in which the same GenAI model both generates and evaluates outputs. Our findings also suggest that GenAI seems to reduce the role of human developers in the persona-creation process. To mitigate the associated risks, we propose actionable guidelines for the responsible integration of GenAI into persona development.