Peak Text: AI and the Golden Age of Libraries and Archives
Keynote Theatre (2B09) | Thu 22 Jan 9:10 a.m.–10:10 a.m.
Presented by
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Keir Winesmith
@drkeir
https://keir.winesmith.co/
Dr. Keir Winesmith is Chief Digital Officer at the National Film & Sound Archive of Australia. His is a leader and strategist, focused on the intersection of digital and culture. He has experience across the GLAMR sector with roles at the National Gallery of Australia, museums on three continents, multiple universities, and as an artist residency at the State Library of Queensland. Keir holds hold a Ph.D. in new media and speaks frequently at international conferences and symposia. He convened Fantastic Futures 2024, the international conference on AI for Libraries, Archives and Museums, he was featured in Fast Company's 100 Most Innovative People in Business, and co-authored The Digital Future of Museums with Dr. Suse Anderson in 2020.
Keir Winesmith
@drkeir
https://keir.winesmith.co/
Dr. Keir Winesmith is Chief Digital Officer at the National Film & Sound Archive of Australia. His is a leader and strategist, focused on the intersection of digital and culture. He has experience across the GLAMR sector with roles at the National Gallery of Australia, museums on three continents, multiple universities, and as an artist residency at the State Library of Queensland. Keir holds hold a Ph.D. in new media and speaks frequently at international conferences and symposia. He convened Fantastic Futures 2024, the international conference on AI for Libraries, Archives and Museums, he was featured in Fast Company's 100 Most Innovative People in Business, and co-authored The Digital Future of Museums with Dr. Suse Anderson in 2020.
Abstract
A few decades from now, the mid 2020s will be remembered as the high point of writing output that is produced solely by humans. Let’s call it Peak Text. Soon, pre-2020s cultural content will attract a huge premium. This crisis of creative output is also an opportunity, for those that retain trust and quality, and can demonstrate provenance.
Cultural organisations serve the public, and the public isn’t served if trustworthy content becomes a luxury good. At the same time, AI tools are enabling libraries. archives and museum to mine their own collections and uncover hidden gems, to add documentation to material that was digitised but never viewed, and to search their massive databases of cultural and historic material in ways that were impossible only 5 years ago. The speed of change in AI content production presents also seismic challenge for collecting institutions. How cultural institutions respond to this moment will separate those that merely survive from those that thrive.
A few decades from now, the mid 2020s will be remembered as the high point of writing output that is produced solely by humans. Let’s call it Peak Text. Soon, pre-2020s cultural content will attract a huge premium. This crisis of creative output is also an opportunity, for those that retain trust and quality, and can demonstrate provenance.
Cultural organisations serve the public, and the public isn’t served if trustworthy content becomes a luxury good. At the same time, AI tools are enabling libraries. archives and museum to mine their own collections and uncover hidden gems, to add documentation to material that was digitised but never viewed, and to search their massive databases of cultural and historic material in ways that were impossible only 5 years ago. The speed of change in AI content production presents also seismic challenge for collecting institutions. How cultural institutions respond to this moment will separate those that merely survive from those that thrive.