[Commlist] CfP: Generative AI and Cultural Heritage international conference

Call for Papers
Generative AI and Cultural Heritage
International conference, University of Turin, Italy, 29-30 Oct. 2026

Sponsored by /_Global Media and China_/ 
<https://journals.sagepub.com/home/GCH> (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)

Location and date: Scuola di Studi Superiori Ferdinando Rossi, 
University of Turin, Turin, Italy, 29-30 October 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_ 
<mailto:(simone.natale /at/ unito.it)> and (_jideqiang /at/ cuc.edu).cn_ 
<mailto:(jideqiang /at/ 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_ 
<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.


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