TrustworthinessTransparencyAccountabilitycs.CY
Trusted Data Forever: Is AI the Answer?
Emanuele Frontoni, Marina Paolanti, Tracey P. Lauriault, Michael Stiber, Luciana Duranti, Abdul-Mageed Muhammad
February 16, 2022
EDBT/ICDT Workshops
6 citations
Key Takeaways
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AI can help archives manage massive amounts of data more efficiently: The paper notes that public and private archives collectively host "yottabytes of trusted data" and identifies AI as a potential tool to improve critical challenges in preservation, description, and access of these records—tasks that are currently "still open to improvement."
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Responsible AI development requires archival expertise: A key finding is that "archival concepts and principles" must actively inform how AI technologies are developed for records management, rather than applying generic AI solutions. This suggests that responsible AI requires domain-specific knowledge and values from the institutions most affected.
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Both benefits and risks of AI in archives need careful evaluation: The research partnership explicitly aims to "determine the benefits and risks of employing AI technologies on records and archives," indicating that the paper treats AI adoption as requiring balanced assessment rather than assuming it is automatically beneficial for preserving cultural heritage and public accountability.
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Trust is central to archival AI applications: The paper emphasizes that archives preserve "trusted data" and that records serve critical functions including "holding the past accountable" and protecting rights. This suggests that any AI system used in archives must maintain and demonstrate trustworthiness to fulfill these essential societal functions.
Abstract
Archival institutions and programs worldwide work to ensure that the records of governments, organizations, communities, and individuals are preserved for future generations as cultural heritage, as sources of rights, and as vehicles for holding the past accountable and to inform the future. This commitment is guaranteed through the adoption of strategic and technical measures for the long-term preservation of digital assets in any medium and form - textual, visual, or aural. Public and private archives are the largest providers of data big and small in the world and collectively host yottabytes of trusted data, to be preserved forever. Several aspects of retention and preservation, arrangement and description, management and administrations, and access and use are still open to improvement. In particular, recent advances in Artificial Intelligence (AI) open the discussion as to whether AI can support the ongoing availability and accessibility of trustworthy public records. This paper presents preliminary results of the InterPARES Trust AI (I Trust AI) international research partnership, which aims to (1) identify and develop specific AI technologies to address critical records and archives challenges; (2) determine the benefits and risks of employing AI technologies on records and archives; (3) ensure that archival concepts and principles inform the development of responsible AI; and (4) validate outcomes through a conglomerate of case studies and demonstrations.
Paper Info
arXiv ID2203.03712
PublishedFebruary 16, 2022
RevisedMarch 14, 2022
Citations
6
Relevance75%
VenueEDBT/ICDT Workshops
TypeJournalArticle
Categorycs.CY
Responsible AI Topics
TrustworthinessTransparencyAccountability
Links
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