Quantifying Culture: A Study of AI and Cultural Heritage Collections

Quantifying Culture investigates the potential of AI to enrich the management and interpretation of cultural heritage collections across Sweden. The project examines current GLAM digitalisation practices and develops methodologies for AI/ML-enhanced metadata generation, with a focus on ethics, diversity, and compliance with FAIR and international data standards. The research bridges the gap between computational methods and humanistic inquiry, aiming to demonstrate how AI can foster more inclusive, transparent, and engaging models of heritage curation.

Links

Project page at Uppsala University

Publications

Foka, A., Griffin, G., Ortiz Pablo, D., et al. (2025). Tracing the bias loop: AI, cultural heritage and bias-mitigating in practice. AI & Society, 40, 5835–5847. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00146-025-02349-z

Foka, A., & von Bonsdorff, J. (2025). AI and Image: Critical Perspectives on the Application of Technology on Art and Cultural Heritage. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Foka, A., & Griffin, G. (2024). AI, Cultural Heritage, and Bias: Some Key Queries That Arise from the Use of GenAI. Heritage, 7(11), 6125-6136. https://doi.org/10.3390/heritage7110287

Griffin, G., Wennerström, E. & Foka, A. AI and Swedish Heritage Organisations: challenges and opportunities. AI & Society: The Journal of Human-Centred Systems and Machine Intelligence, 39, 2359–2372 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00146-023-01689-y

Foka, A., Eklund, L., Løvlie, A. S., & Griffin, G. (2023). Critically assessing AI/ML for cultural heritage: Potentials and challenges. In Handbook of critical studies of artificial intelligence (pp. 815–826).

Foka, A., Attemark, J., & Wahlberg, F. (2022). Women’s metadata, semantic web, ontologies and AI: Potentials in critically enriching Carl Sahlin’s industrial history collection. In Emerging technologies, museums: Mediating difficult heritage (pp. 23–41).

Heintz, F., Gulliksen, J., Loufti, A., & Foka, A. (2022). Digital spetskompetens 2035 : Framtidsanalys för kompetensförsörjningen av digital spetskompetens. Retrieved from https://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-484329

Foka, A., Eklund, L., Lowe, A., Skinner, M., & Løvlie, A. S. (2020). AI for digitalisation of cultural heritage: Potentials and ethical challenges. Paper presented at the 18th European Conference on Computer-Supported Cooperative Work (ECSCW), Siegen, Germany.