Editors’ Summary: This article argues that human-in-the-loop AI can be beneficial to GLAM institutions. Based on fifteen semi-structured interviews with professionals across GLAM institutions in the UK and continental Europe, the article considers current practice around sensitivity review, metadata enrichment, and collaboration with source communities. The authors outline a framework for AI adoption combining SafeSearch-style triage, OCR/HTR of mounts and captions, authority-linked entities, semantic (vector) search, and constrained multimodal captioning. The article emphasizes the need for a human to be involved in the process. In their words: “AI can assist with scale; archivists and communities retain authority over what is surfaced, how it is described, and when warnings or access restrictions are required.”
Editors’ Choice: Should sensitive archival images be shown? The case for applying AI to colonial archives
