24/06/2026
‘AI is not a choice; we use it every day without even knowing it’. - Emily Pugh
In May, inherit came together with members of the Getty Research Institute Getty for a full-day workshop to explore how AI is shaping heritage practice and research. 🔍
Key takeaways from the workshop, which was co-organized by research coordinators Yoonha Kim and Elisaveta Ernst:
🗂️ Emily Pugh and Sandra van Ginhoven from the Getty Research Institute highlighted the historical dimensions of data work by using the Getty Provenance Index, a database that provides open access to millions of archival records. The researchers highlighted that although AI is framed as a choice, it's already embedded in the systems we depend on, including how we store, search, and surface cultural memory. The real questions are: Whose knowledge gets centered, what biases get baked in, and what are the ingredients to close the gaps?
🤖 Anthropologist Maxime Le Calvé introduced 'Ethnographic AI', inviting participants to prompt chatbots as if they were interviewing ethnographers. The group worked with a local Large Language Model (LLM), and explored the idea of 'divinatory logics'. This approach emphasizes chance and interpretation over fixed ideas of truth, treating AI outputs as speculative prompts rather than authoritative answers.
🎨 Artist Matías Sauter Morera explored AI as a creative tool for artists, using it to construct speculative historical narratives that address gaps in archives. In his work, AI helps imagine photographic records of q***r life in rural Costa Rica.He described the process behind this work, which became the Getty Museum's first AI-generated acquisition.
Thank you to all speakers as well as the participants for the inspiring day!
We look forward to continuing this exploration of how AI impacts heritage practice and research: attending to its specific models rather than generalising,embracing its playfulness and messiness, while remaining critically aware of its risks, ethical issues, and the complex questions it raises about truth - including the policy and legislative conversations those questions demand.
© inherit
Slide 4: © Maxime Le Calvé
