FIAT/IFTA World Conference 2026

Artificial intelligence is rapidly becoming a primary interface to knowledge and culture. Audiovisual archives therefore cannot remain passive observers. They steward some of the richest records of public life: broadcast history, oral testimony, performance, news, memory and cultural expression. As AI systems increasingly mediate discovery, interpretation and reuse, archives face shared challenges around extraction, invisibility, misrepresentation, governance and reciprocity.
This panel frames these challenges through the concept of Public AI: an approach to AI that serves the public interest rather than purely commercial logics. For audiovisual heritage, this means three concrete things. First, public assets: archival data, metadata, tools and standards should remain as open, interoperable and reusable as possible, reducing dependence on closed platforms. Second, public purposes: AI should support access, interpretation, education, participation and creative reuse of audiovisual heritage, rather than merely mining archives as raw material. Third, public oversight: decisions about how archival content is used in AI, under what conditions, and with what safeguards, must remain subject to meaningful public accountability.
Together, these principles offer a practical alternative to extractive AI models. They position audiovisual archives not just as data providers, but as institutions that can shape more democratic and trustworthy AI futures.
In this panel, three speakers will explore how audiovisual archives can contribute to Public AI through data stewardship, contextualisation, standards, rights-aware access and collaborative governance. The discussion builds on the Alignment Assembly “Culture for AI” [1] and follow-up work linked to the Data Space for Cultural Heritage and the European Collaborative Cloud for Cultural Heritage.
Participants will gain concrete insights into how audiovisual archives can respond strategically to AI, including practical perspectives on metadata, rights, access, standards and collaboration that are directly relevant to the FIAT/IFTA community.
[1] https://www.dataspace-culturalheritage.eu/en/news/discover-our-new-publication-on-artificial-intelligence-and-the-data-space