Cultural Collaboration and Artificial Intelligence: Fantastic Futures 2024

Connecting AI to Cultural Collections

Over four days at multiple locations around Canberra, the conference responded to unparalleled global interest in AI and its effects on society. GLAM sector leaders and innovators joined industry professionals and academics to connect AI to cultural collections and the people who engage with them, seeking to define and create positive impacts for AI deployment.

Peter-Lucas Jones, Kathy Reid and Keir Winesmith in conversation. Photo: Grace Costa.

The event featured a formal conference with a mix of international and Australian keynote presentations, demonstrations, academic papers and creative commissions, as well as behind-the-scenes tours, professional workshops, a performance by award-winning Australian audiovisual artist and composer Robin Fox, and an art exhibition.

The NFSA introduced Bowerbird: its internally developed and machine-learning enabled, transcription engine. Bowerbird is currently being fine-tuned to recognise Australian English speech, including Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander terms – such as place names Ngunnawal and Queanbeyan – as well as Australian colloquialisms. Bowerbird is being used to transcribe thousands of hours of NFSA audiovisual collection material to enrich collection discovery and access.

Watch Fantastic Futures sessions

Video recordings of conference sessions are now available on-demand, for free, on the NFSA’s Research and Innovation hub.

In 2025, The AI for (and by) Libraries, Archives and Museums (AI4LAM) community will present further webinars, meetups and working groups focused on topics such as speech-to-text and professional development.

Fantastic Futures 2025 will take place at the British Library in December.

Main image: attendees at the Fantastic Futures Conference at the NFSA, October 2024.