Responsible AI for Galleries, Libraries, Archives and Museums

AI offers a means for unlocking, describing, enhancing or preserving the rich information or insights within cultural and historical collections at scale. Employing AI on these collections raises a number of challenges and risks along different dimensions that cultural organisations such as galleries, libraries, archives and museums (GLAM) need to consider: accuracy, bias, environmental impacts, context preservation, and provenance. Combined with the plethora of AI models available and the various analytical tasks required to meaningfully catalogue heritage items, these challenges limit the capacity of GLAM practitioners in making these collections more widely accessible. Governance frameworks that will help and guide cultural institutions in applying AI and other emerging technologies in a responsible and ethical manner are thus pertinent.