ACE to develop AI best practice guidance for cultural sector

Arts Council England has teamed up with Goldsmiths, University of London, to develop best practice guidance on using artificial intelligence (AI) in the cultural sector.

The work is being led by Dr Oonagh Murphy, Senior Lecturer in Digital Culture and Society at Goldsmiths, who has received a fellowship award from a three-year national research programme funded by the UKRI Arts and Humanities Research Council called BRAID – Bridging the Responsible AI Divide.

Murphy will work with ACE over the next 18 months to explore how AI might be ethically and responsibly integrated into its work and the work of the organisations it supports.

The guidance will focus on harnessing the benefits of experimenting with AI, exploring the risks it might present to the intellectual property rights and livelihoods of people who work in the sector, and recommending ways to mitigate them.

Her research will involve interviews with ACE staff and other cultural sector professionals to understand how AI might impact their work, as well as reviewing emerging literature and good practices regarding the use of AI.

Murphy said: “This project takes a whole organisation approach, and the embedded nature of the research fellowship provides a unique opportunity to create new ways of thinking about how AI will impact on the work of Arts Council England today, tomorrow and into the future.”