AI and the Digital Commons: Perspectives from online collections & archives

What are the impacts of AI scraping on the digital heritage sector and wider digital commons? And how are artists and creators using - and reimagining - the digital commons in the AI age? People in the creative and heritage sectors are invited to explore these questions at an event hosted in Hilversum at Sound & Vision with the University of Edinburgh, as part of ekip, along with AIxDESIGN, featuring a panel and creative zine workshop.

Context

Cultural Heritage Institutions have long contributed to and been custodians of the digital commons. Commons-based resources have flourished thanks to the assets shared by cultural institutions, creators, and their communities of practice encouraging access and reuse. Making data available to the digital commons fosters learning and creativity - very much contributing to, in turn, the public missions of cultural heritage institutions.

Currently this sector's online collections - particularly those on the open web and with commons-based licenses - are experiencing the effects of industrial-scale AI scraping tools on their vital infrastructure. While AI offers the possibility of exposing heritage and cultural content to new audiences, these products are also creating new risks and harms for the sector. Larger organisations’ online systems are being burdened with excessive, machine-sourced web traffic. Cultural Heritage Institutions are seeing reduced human traffic to their collections, while users are encountering their historical data outside proper contexts. Artists, meanwhile, are responding by reimagining the role of digital commons in the AI age through critical interventions and alternatives designs beyond those offered by Big Tech.

This event is in-person only at Sound & Vision in Hilversum, the Netherlands. Participants are also welcome to stay afterwards for a lunch reception from 13:00-15:00.

You can also register for an online version of this event taking place on 27th August here: AI and the Digital Commons

Event Agenda

• 10:00-10:10: Introduction by ekip

• 10:10-11:15: Panel featuring leading perspectives from leading cultural heritage and digital commons institutions, featuring: Maarten Brinkerink (Sound & Vision) and others announced soon!
• 11:15-11:30: Break
• 11:30-12:55: Workshop by AIxDesign: groups will discuss key issues for the digital commons in the era of AI: how do we define the digital commons in 2026? What are top challenges to heritage-based commons posed by AI scraping? What are key opportunities? What policies would best support the sector’s engagement with the digital commons?
• 12:55-13:00: Closing with reflections on key learnings
• 13:00-15:00: Lunch

Taking part in research on AI and the digital commons

Participants at this event will be taking part in research carried out by the University of Edinburgh; the research investigates the risks that archival bodies and digital collections are facing from AI-driven content extraction tools. For information about this research, please see the project's .

The research is funded by ekip, the European Cultural and Creative Sectors and Industries Policy Platform, an interdisciplinary four-year Horizon Europe project running from September 2023-August 2027. The programme focuses on how open innovation ecosystems can be leveraged to support diverse and inclusive development of immersive and convergent technologies through a strong network of networks across Creative and Cultural Industries (CCIs) in Europe and beyond.

This event is the sixth in a series of Open Innovation Factories organised by the University of Edinburgh as part of ekip.