Event information
If museum objects could talk, what questions would you ask them? If you could create your own scrimshaw, what images would you use?
As part of the AI for Cultural Heritage Hub project (ArCH), members of the SPRI collections teams, have been working on an experimental research project with other academics, library and archive professionals and computing specialists to see if/how computer vision, language models and other AI tools can address important questions in cultural heritage.
The Polar Museum will be showcasing a small part of this work on Saturday 28 February 2026 in the SPRI lecture theatre.
Join the Museum from 11am for an interactive session for families and all ages where you can talk to museum objects, hear their replies, and use AI to make your own digital scrimshaw. You can also stay on for a talk (12 - 1pm), where members of the project team reflect on the implications of AI for museum collections and practice, including environmental considerations.
From 2 - 4pm, there will be a session for students, academics and collections professionals, giving an opportunity to test the technology and a talk (3 - 4pm) from experts on how these AI tools work (or didn’t work) and how ethical considerations were factored into design, including environmental impact.
This project is supported by funding from ai@cam and the Accelerate Programme for Scientific Discovery, made possible by a donation from Schmidt Sciences.
