AI in Museums: Reflections, Perspectives and Applications

Artificial intelligence is becoming an increasingly important topic in the cultural sector. While museums have long focused on building digital object databases, the existing data can now become a field of application for machine learning, deep learning and foundation model approaches. This goes hand in hand with new artistic practices, curation tools, visitor analytics, chatbots, automatic translations and tailor-made text generation. With a decidedly interdisciplinary approach, the volume brings together a wide range of critical reflections, practical perspectives and concrete applications of artificial intelligence in museums, and provides an overview of the current state of the debate.

Sonja Thiel works as digital catalyst for Artificial Intelligence at Badisches Landesmuseum in Karlsruhe. She has a background in history and philosophy and has worked as a curator for participatory processes at cultural history museums. 2014-2020 she developed a blended-learning academy program in Museum Studies at the University of Freiburg. Her work focuses on the intersections between museology, participatory curatorial practice and open digital education.

Johannes C. Bernhardt is a cultural historian specializing in cultural management and digital transformation. After ten years at the universities of Freiburg, Mannheim and Bochum, he worked at the Badisches Landesmuseum from 2017 to 2023 on digitization concepts for historical collections, the intersection of digitality and participation, and the development of the digital museum - for all these fields, Artificial Intelligence opens new perspectives.