Dr Marjory Da Costa Abreu will work with a team based at the University of Sheffield to look at how AI could reshape the sector the responsible use of AI in the museum and heritage sector, specifically in relation to biases in AI which stem from the colonial history of museum collections.
The project will consider the potential applications of AI for helping curators and researchers gain a deeper understanding of museum collections and improve the visitor experience, and will have a particular focus on tackling biases in AI, which may arise from the colonial history of many museum collections.
The project is one of 10 six-month scoping projects, supported with £2 million AHRC funding through the Bridging Responsible AI Divides (BRAID) programme, that will define what responsible AI is across sectors such as education, policing and the creative industries.
These projects will produce early-stage research and recommendations to inform future work in this area. They illustrate how the UK is at the forefront of defining responsible AI and exploring how it can be embedded across key sectors.
Marjory Da Costa Abreu, senior lecturer in ethical artificial intelligence and co-investigator of the project, said: "I have been involved into understanding the use of AI in an ethical way applied to forensics and health for a while, having had collaborations with different institutions both in Brazil and the UK since my area of expertise (ethical AI) has focused on decision making performed using biometrics data.
“This project is the second with this team who has been working for more than 4 years, starting with the award of the Future Leaders Fellowship where Dr.Pong is the PI looking at the use of AI in Drones and warfare and public perceptions on it and we are now looking at how to use AI to decolonise museum pieces explanations and the discussions around it.
This forms the main foundation of my research on ethical AI, which is to use it to have a positive impact on society, not just because it is available."
The team is made up of Dr Joanna Tidy (University of Sheffield), Dr Richard Carter (University of York), Dr Marjory Da Costa-Abreau (Sheffield Hallam University), and Dr Beryl Pong (University of Cambridge), and in partnership with the Royal Armouries, the UK's national museum of arms and armour.
