Call for Papers:

Generative AI and Cultural Heritage
International Conference
October 29-30, 2026
Ferdinando Rossi School of Advanced Studies
University of Turin, Italy
http://commlist.org/archive/ [see entries for May 7, 2026]

Sponsored by Global Media and China (Sage Journals)

Organisers:
Simone Natale (University of Turin, Italy)
Deqiang Ji (Communication University of China)
Anthony Fung (The Chinese University of Hong Kong)
Dianlin Huang (Communication University of China)

Deadline for the submission of abstracts: June 30, 2026

Cultural heritage – defined as the tangible and intangible legacy that is passed down from generation to generation – has always been sensitive to technological innovation. From photography to film, from computing to the Internet, from social media to virtual reality, cultural preservation, exhibition, communication and memory has been informed by the introduction of media innovations, and institutions such as museums, archives and libraries have often been early adopters of new technologies. Technological companies such as internet platforms have also been active in protecting and innovating cultural heritage for either commercial or public purposes. The development of Generative AI signals a new episode in this trajectory. Systems such as Large Language Models (LLMs) and text-to-image models provide new resources for institutions, platforms, practitioners, and users to engage with the historical record, produce text and audiovisuals related to cultural heritage, and access historical sources. Through a combination of interdisciplinary keynotes, paper presentations and roundtables, this conference aims to illuminate the implications of these emerging practices and approaches.

As argued by Nieto McAvoy & Kidd (2024), these changes and processes lead to the emergence of “synthetic heritage,” understood as the activation of generative AI to blend authentic historical elements with artificial enhancements. Synthetic heritage opens new pathways of engagement with the public, but also raises several challenges and potential risks: for instance, AI’s uneasy relationship with accuracy and the propensity of LLMs to hallucinate invites questions about its capacity to ensure historical validity and appropriate reliance on sources (Schuh, 2024; Matei, 2024). Synthetic heritage, moreover, invites scholars and practitioners to reconsider existing notions and discussions as well as to imagine new ways to capture and make sense of the ongoing change. The conference will create a forum where theoretical notions such as authenticity, cultural memory, and heritage can be taken into account and rediscussed in the context of changing technological systems.

Addressing such issues is particularly urgent in a moment when decisions are being taken in the cultural heritage sector about the adoption of these technologies. Applications of generative AI for cultural heritage are in fact manifold. In institutions such as museums and archives, they include chatbots impersonating historical characters (Natale et al., 2025), the production of synthetic images illustrating possible pasts (Kidd & Nieto McAvoy, 2023), interactive museum guides and search tools powered by LLMs to give access to online databases and archives (Jaillant et al., 2025). Internet platforms, as the main operator of generative AI, use it for producing multi-model cultural products, and moderating/manipulating interactive relations with users. More broadly, the adoption of AI is rapidly informing the practical ways through which practitioners and users access and interact with materials and information about the past: think, for instance, of how LLMs such as ChatGPT and Deepseek provide their users with information about the past, or how search engines such as Google and Baidu create historical narratives through the integration of AI-generated summaries in their services. The conference will take into account these and other applications, providing a forum to interrogate how AI is impacting cultural heritage, memory, communication, and the past through theoretical and empirical-based research.

The conference is sponsored by /Global Media and China/, a Sage journal that pursues an international approach to original research. Based on the recognition that AI is a global phenomenon, but at the same time always situated in specific cultural contexts (Natale & Ji, 2025), the conference will particularly welcome contributions that consider the implications of global variation in AI deployment – for instance, differences between different regions of cultural contexts in shaping the production, circulation, and governance of cultural heritage, and/or explore the power relations involved in how global AI platforms moderate, manipulate, and present cultural heritage contents to different public. Empirical research, case studies, and theoretical perspectives from diverse cultural and geographic contexts are welcome. Relevant topics may include, but are not limited to:

• Synthetic heritage and synthetic past
• Impact of AI on cultural and collective memory
• Generative AI, synthetic heritage and authenticity
• Public policies on AI and cultural heritage
• Applications of AI in cultural heritage institutions including museums, archives and libraries
• Opportunities and pitfalls associated with the use of generative AI for cultural heritage
• AI and intangible heritage
• Generative AI, cultural memory and vernacular practices
• Comparative analysis of the use of generative AI in different national, cultural and geographic contexts
• AI, digital platforms and cultural heritage
• Geopolitics and cultural politics of generative AI in the cultural heritage domain

The conference will not require the payment of registration fees.

Please send 250-300 words abstracts and a 100 words biographical note in one single document, making sure that the email’s subject indicates “Proposal for the Cultural heritage and generative AI conference,” to the following contacts: simone.natale@unito.it and jideqiang@cuc.edu.cn

Deadline for the submission of abstracts: 30 June 2026
Accepted abstracts notified by: 20 July 2026

REFERENCES

Jaillant, L., Warwick, C., Gooding, P., Aske, K., Layne-Worthey, G., & Downie, J. S. (eds.) (2025). Navigating artificial intelligence for cultural heritage organisations. UCL Press.

Kidd, J., & Nieto McAvoy, E. (2023). Deep Nostalgia: Remediated memory, algorithmic nostalgia and technological ambivalence. Convergence: The International Journal of Research into New Media Technologies, 29(3), 620-640.

Matei Ș (2024) Generative artificial intelligence and collective remembering: The technological mediation of mnemotechnic values. Journal of Human-Technology Relations, 2.1: 1-22. https://doi.org/10.59490/jhtr.2024.2.7405

Natale, S., & Ji, D. (2025). Human-machine communication cultures: Introduction. Global Media and China, 10(4), 417-424.

Natale, S., Surace, B., Mensa, E., & Befera, L. (2025). ChatGPT for cultural heritage and the customization of generative AI: A talkthrough analysis of the Luigi Einaudi chatbot. New Media & Society, 0(0). https://doi.org/10.1177/14614448251384258

Nieto McAvoy, E., & Kidd, J. (2024). Synthetic Heritage: Online platforms, deceptive genealogy and the ethics of algorithmically generated memory. Memory, Mind & Media, 3, e12.

Schuh, J. (2024). AI As Artificial Memory: A Global Reconfiguration of Our Collective Memory Practices? Memory Studies Review, 1, 231-55.