News

Making Public AI reality: How cultural heritage can lead the way

Person typing on a laptop displaying a presentation titled The case for Public AI: making it happen with cultural heritage.

After months of collaborative development and iteration with the data space community and the Europeana Initiative, we invite you to read the newly published paper, ‘The case for Public AI: making it happen with cultural heritage’!

by
Lorena Aldana (Europeana Foundation)

Developed by the professional community of the common European data space for cultural heritage, and the Europeana Initiative as its steward, the paper reflects discussions within the Alignment Assembly on Culture for AI – a collective intelligence exercise that has engaged over 400 professionals to date. It also articulates a shared position for the wider cultural heritage sector in Europe.

The Alignment Assembly showed that the cultural heritage sector wants to actively shape a fairer and healthier information ecosystem, building on its expertise and values. It revealed a desire for a dual role in relation to AI. On the one hand, by setting boundaries for how cultural heritage data is used in AI, preventing its absorption into opaque, extractive systems that are misaligned with public values or fail to give back to the institutions that steward it. On the other hand, by actively harnessing AI to unlock new forms of access, participation and societal value, guided by its public-interest mission and values. The paper supports this dual approach.

Public AI and how cultural heritage can make it happen

This paper places Public AI within the realities of the cultural heritage sector, outlining four concrete ways for the sector supported by the data space to contribute to making it happen in practical operational terms.

The four contributions to Public AI from our sector are to:

  • Provide high-quality data and the knowledge needed to keep it traceable, interpretable and reliable. In doing so, cultural heritage institutions help make AI outputs more robust, contextualised and open to scrutiny.
  • Manage data access and reuse in fair and reciprocal ways. Cultural heritage institutions are reliable intermediaries and should influence the way cultural information is accessed and reused by AI developers, helping to prevent value extraction without reciprocity and the depletion of public infrastructure.
  • Shape how smaller, domain-relevant AI systems are developed and used. This includes helping to shape the governance of their development and deployment, ensuring that AI remains transparent, contestable and aligned with democratic values and regulatory frameworks.
  • Strengthen Public AI literacy across institutions and society. Institutions must upskill professionals while helping audiences understand how AI works and engage critically with AI systems they encounter.

The enabler role of the data space

The paper outlines how the common European data space for cultural heritage can help the sector take action across the four areas described above, to make Public AI a reality. This goes beyond data sharing to include advocacy, capacity building and forming alliances across and beyond the sector. With the data space as an enabler, cultural heritage institutions can help shape a Public AI ecosystem in Europe based on public values, accountability and cultural diversity.

Read the paper

Read the paper in full here
or get the key insights through the High-level summary here

What else is in store for AI in the data space?

The data space will lead by example, applying AI in line with Public AI principles and the messages outlined in the paper. This includes building an AI-powered retrieval platform to enhance search and recommendations, using AI to detect and mitigate biases in heritage collections, and delivering 30 million digital assets for AI training in line with the objectives of the Data Union Strategy.

In the months ahead, the data space will continue supporting the wide uptake and co-ownership of the paper. In addition, stay tuned for more AI-related work:

  • A policy paper will be developed with the EU-funded European Heritage Hub project. This paper will include concrete, actionable recommendations and will be released in September.
  • The data space will develop protocols and frameworks for sharing cultural heritage data for AI use, grounded in a reciprocal logic.
  • Work of Europeana Network Association Communities and collaboration with the Europeana Aggregators’ Forum will be undertaken to strengthen AI literacy across the sector.
  • A workshop to develop an AI-led national strategy for cultural heritage in Ireland will be held on 2 October, during the Irish Presidency of the Council of the EU in the second half of 2026.
  • Partnerships and alliances, including with AI4LAM, ECHOES, Culture Action Europe and the European Heritage Hub will be nurtured to continue disseminating the messages of the paper.
  • Discussions with tech companies will take place to align ambitions and ensure responsible AI development, building on the messages of the paper.

Discover related content