REVIEW
Eur. j. cult. manag. policy
Volume 15 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/ejcmp.2025.14009
This article is part of the Special IssueArtificial Intelligence: Cultural Policy, Management, Education, and ResearchView all 5 articles
Artificial Intelligence for Cultural Heritage Research: the Cchallenges in UK Ccopyright Llaw and Ppolicy
Paula Westenberger*
Despoina Farmaki- Brunel University London, Uxbridge, United Kingdom
Select one of your emails
You have multiple emails registered with Frontiers:
Notify me on publication
Please enter your email address:
If you already have an account, please login
You don't have a Frontiers account ? You can register here
Artificial intelligence (AI) is revolutionising our relationship with cultural heritage, enhancing access to, engagement with and preservation of collections and heritage sites. AI is also being used as a valuable research tool in the context of heritage collections. However, as materials protected by copyright materials may be used in AI development, training and use may use copyright protected materials, copyright law can may become an obstacle to such important AI deployments in the heritage sector, an area which is currently understudied from the United Kingdom (UK) perspective. This article explores the intricate interplay between cultural heritage, AI and copyright law, establishing demonstrating the main copyright law and policy challenges facing cultural heritage professionals and researchers in using AI in the Unitedregulation and copyright policy discussions in the UK. This exploration underscores the imperative for an inclusive policy dialogue that considers the perspectives and evidence of the cultural heritage sector in its full breadth and diversity (including related researchers) in shaping copyright law reform and AI regulation, and for further research to be carried out in this field.
Keywords: Cultural heritage, Research, Artificial intelligence, copyright, text and data mining
Received: 30 Oct 2024; Accepted: 24 Feb 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Westenberger and Farmaki. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Paula Westenberger, Brunel University London, Uxbridge, United Kingdom
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.