Workshop: AI in Museums Task force

Workshop: AI in Museums Task Force

Workshop description

Museums are increasingly exploring the use of artificial intelligence (AI) as a potential component of working practices. While there are many opportunities in the application of these new technologies, there are also several implications which require careful consideration and reflection. We believe informed choices will increase a human-centric approach to the use of AI, especially for museums and museum documentation.

We strongly believe museums are important stewards of human knowledge, collected and developed throughout the years, and that continuously transforming this knowledge essentially produces a documented history of human thought. Documentation in museums has been a chronically undervalued museum activity (as reflected in the share of resources allocated compared to other activities) yet appears to be the most important input for GenAI as it produces the data on which these models are trained. In this apparent contradiction we find important opportunities to advance the sector.

ICOM has requested a statement from ICOM Documentation regarding the use of AI as it relates to museum documentation and documentation practices. As specialists in documentation, ICOM Documentation gladly accepted the task and, following a call to our community, a task force was formed. The goal of this group is to produce a statement for the ethical and responsible use of generative AI (GenAI) in regards to museum documentation. To this end, the Task Force AI in Museums of ICOM Documentation is working on drafting a series of recommendations regarding the use of GenAI in museum documentation.

Our work so far has been based on a review of statements about GenAI use in cultural heritage institutions, published by museums, archives, and libraries. While we do not seek to discourage the use of AI tools in the documentation of museum collections, we urge informed preparation to strengthen the role of the documentalist. We use this opportunity to meet with the ICOM Documentation community to present our concept work, including draft statement and recommendations, and invite input to advance towards a final proposal. This will help to ensure that the final statement and recommendations reflect the voices and concerns of ICOM Documentation as a community.

Aim
Present the current work of the Task Force and engage with the ICOM Documentation community to discuss the draft statement and recommendations.
We want to use this space to include the input from participants regarding the main topics we address and the recommendations we provide.
At the end of the workshop participants will:

  • Have a better idea of GenAI, how it is being used in the context of documentation, and how cultural heritage institutions have been considering this use
  • Learn about recommendations regarding responsible and ethical use of GenAI in museum documentation
  • Be up-to-date with the Task Force’s proposed statement and recommendations

  • Have contributed to the development of domain best practice approaches regarding the use of AI in museum documentation

     

Date and time

Monday,  16 November, 9:30 - 12:00

 

Workshop venue

AfricaMuseum - main venue 

 

Contact

Trilce Navarrete - navarretehernandez@eshcc.eur.nl