AI in Cultural Heritage Preservation

Welcome to the “AI in cultural heritage preservation” course!

We are thrilled that you are continuing your learning journey with us to explore the practical, hands-on applications of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in the vital work of safeguarding our shared histories. This course is designed not merely as a technical guide, but as an exploration of how new technologies can ethically serve the need to preserve and share cultural heritage in general, and stories, in particular, across generations. The course moves beyond theory to demonstrate how you can harness the power of AI in a real-world setting.

Course summary:

Throughout this course, we will navigate the challenge that much of our intangible cultural heritage (ICH) – the living traditions, expressions, and knowledge passed down through generations – and traditional ecological knowledge (TEK) is rapidly disappearing. The wisdom of our senior community members represents a precious and fragile archive of insights that is at risk of being lost forever.

This course presents a practical, AI-assisted framework to address this urgent challenge, showing you step-by-step how to document, preserve, and promote these invaluable narratives.

To make this educational journey as tangible and meaningful as possible, we have thoughtfully utilised the HER[AI]TAGE project as our guiding case study. HER[AI]TAGE aims to document, preserve, and promote the ICH and TEK of senior community members (aged 60 and over) living along the Drava, Mura, and Danube rivers in Croatia, Slovenia, and Serbia.

By grounding our learning modules in this context, we will demonstrate how AI can help to connect generations, bridge geographical distances, and bring precious, endangered stories to life in new and engaging ways.

Our approach is deeply aligned with key European Union priorities, including the promotion of cultural diversity, the enhancement of digital skills for all citizens, and the assurance of ethical and trustworthy AI use as outlined in frameworks like the EU AI Act and recent Council of Europe guidelines.

Please be assured that this course models the ethical and responsible use of AI, a core theme of the entire HER[AI]TAGE project. In this spirit of transparency, we have also used generative AI as an assistant in crafting some of the course’s examples and summaries, editing the language of the content to be more inclusive and engaging, while at the same time all AI-assisted content has been carefully reviewed and verified by human experts for accuracy and suitability.

Our commitment is to provide a responsible, engaging, and clear learning experience for everyone, empowering you to use these tools with confidence and integrity.

Learning outcomes:

Upon successful completion of this course, learners will be able to:

1. Identify the key phases of a cultural heritage preservation project and explain how AI can aid at each stage of the set framework.
2. Describe best practices for recording oral histories and digitising artifacts using accessible, everyday technology.
3. Recognise the critical importance of metadata and use AI-generated examples to structure archival information for a heritage collection.
4. Explain the core ethical principles of heritage work, including informed consent, and demonstrate how AI can assist in drafting respectful and comprehensive consent documents.
5. Apply AI tools conceptually to process transcribed heritage texts, including summarization, keyword extraction, translation, and rewriting for different audiences.
6. Utilise AI prompts to generate descriptive scene texts for visual guidance and to draft narrative scripts for audio productions.
7. Describe conceptual models for assembling heritage materials into a simple exhibit and for gathering community feedback.
8. Explore creative applications of generative AI, including image reconstruction, music generation from text, and video creation from stories.
9. Critically assess the role of the “human-in-the-loop” for validating and contextualising all AI-generated content in a heritage project.
10. Identify potential next steps for continuing their practice and applying AI-assisted techniques to their own cultural heritage project and activities.

Course overview: