Coloniality, Collections and the Responsible Use of AI in Museums and Heritage

Designed with decolonial values in mind, the aim of this toolkit and workbook is to help museums and heritage organisations, those who work within them, and their broader communities, define on an ongoing basis what a responsible use of AI should look like for their specific setting, ambitions, and projects. In particular, this resource aims to consider AI use as it relates to processes of museum decolonisation that address museum collections which were acquired as part of colonial expansion and rule. AI is enmeshed with and maintains historic and ongoing colonial power relations, biases, and harms. Given the momentum around AI integration, museums and heritage institutions face a complicated and potentially fraught process of navigation in which they attempt to reconcile AI use with their educative, social, and cultural mission and ethic, including their processes of decolonisation.

The toolkit is divided into sections which provide background and useful definitions and perspectives related to the tension between AI use by museums and heritage institutions and their decolonial practice. The final section sketches a pathway for critically engaging with AI and developing situated approaches to responsible AI use. Links to relevant resources are provided throughout the sections. These resources support your ongoing programme of work and the development of connections and relationships to underpin a person, place, and culture-based view of what responsible AI use can and should look like. Each part of the toolkit is accompanied by opportunities for solo or collective reflection or exploration in a workbook format. They are designed to help you to begin to apply and think through the ideas in relation to your own organisation. 

It is important to note from the start that ‘responsible AI’ is not a panacea and that a ‘navigation’ of AI ethics should not assume that some form of AI use will result. Deciding not to use AI, whether in a specific context or across an organisation, is a valid response to the ethical problems posed by AI. Not using AI should be ‘on the table’ in any discussion about what is right for a setting, and opting out of AI should be safeguarded as a viable path for individuals and organisations.

The resource was developed as part of an AHRC/BRAID funded scoping project, Museum Visitor Experience and the Responsible Use of AI to Communicate Colonial Collections (AH/Z505547/1). The project was a collaboration between the Universities of Sheffield, Cambridge, Sheffield Hallam, York and the Royal Armouries Museum, Leeds. The project was the winner of the Collections Trust award 2025. 

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