Ctrl+S Culture: AI and Heritage in a Digital World - Day 1

Day One opened with a forward-looking focus on how artificial intelligence is transforming cultural heritage. Sessions highlighted AI-powered risk analysis, digital documentation, climate-related monitoring, and the growing need for ethical governance and community-centred approaches. Speakers showcased tools already supporting disaster risk management, climate resilience and conservation practice – from deep learning, and explainable machine learning to augmented restoration techniques and large language models – before closing withreflections on equity, transparency, data sovereignty, and building responsible and inclusive AI ecosystems for heritage. A defining moment came with the keynote: The Future of Cultural Heritage: AI Technologies Between Protection, Restoration and Ethical Challenges. The presentation provided a compellingperspective on how digitization and AI can help protect cultural heritage amid conflict, instability, and environmental crises. Highlighting predictive modelling and remote sensing, the keynote emphasized that sustained innovation is essential as threats evolve – while reinforcing that people remain at the heart of heritage protection. Robust datasets and technological infrastructures are vital for cultural resilience, but on-site expertise, local knowledge, and manual skills remain irreplaceable. AI, the speaker argued, should extend human capacity, enabling faster insights and stronger situational awareness when time-sensitive decisions determine the survival of heritage.