Enriching Cultural Heritage with Artificial Intelligence

Event Summary

Join DC-area cultural heritage organizations to explore how AI can enhance engagement with audiences while strengthening the authenticity and relevancy of library, archives and museum (LAM) collections. The OpenAI Forum, in collaboration with the Library of Congress, the DC Chapter of AI4LAM and Ask Mona, will highlight the ways historical and arts institutions can leverage AI to make exhibits more interactive, accessible and discoverable for audiences. It will also lay the groundwork for more cultural heritage conversations and collaborations with AI tied to the country’s 250th anniversary and AI4LAM’s 2026 annual meeting in DC next year. 

Our program unfolds in three dynamic segments:

Presentations: Leaders from the Library of Congress, the National Gallery of Art AI4LAM (Libraries, Archives, and Museums), and Ask Mona will share their most inspiring use cases—showcasing how AI is being applied to make collections newly discoverable and understandable to both scholars and the public.

Panel Discussion: All presenters will come together in a moderated conversation to reflect on the opportunities and challenges of bringing AI into cultural heritage institutions, and to exchange perspectives across disciplines.

Live Demonstration: We close with an interactive tour of the Library of Congress’s permanent Thomas Jefferson Library collection—temporarily augmented with AI—offering participants a first-hand look at how technology can animate and reframe historic archives. Specifically, we will engage with the following historical artifacts from this archive: 

1. Phyllis Wheatley’s Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral
2. Thomas Jefferson’s copy of The Federalist
3. The Dunlap Broadside (first printing of the Declaration of Independence)
4. American Entomology by Thomas Say