Stages of restoration of Shitao's painting using GenAI
GenAI for Heritage
Generative AI offers new ways to explore artworks, reconstruct historical materials, interpret cultural heritage, and support conservation. But using AI in these domains also raises fundamental questions about authenticity, provenance, interpretation, and human expertise.
Our research investigates how AI can support conservation professionals, researchers, and cultural institutions without replacing the expertise and judgment that make their work valuable. We explore generative and multimodal AI as tools for examining possibilities, documenting decisions, supporting analysis, and creating new ways for people to engage with cultural heritage.
A central focus is the relationship between AI-generated possibilities and professional judgment. Rather than treating an AI-generated reconstruction or interpretation as definitive, we investigate how these systems can support exploration while making uncertainty, provenance, and alternative interpretations visible.
Our research spans
Generative AI for Conservation
Exploring how generative models can support non-invasive experimentation, visualization, restoration planning, and conservation decision-making.
Authenticity & Interpretation
Investigating how AI-generated reconstructions and interpretations influence perceptions of authenticity, aesthetic integrity, and cultural meaning.
AI & Provenance
Examining how AI can support documentation, transparency, accountability, and communication around the history and treatment of cultural objects.
Heritage & Archaeology
Applying multimodal and generative AI to the interpretation, documentation, visualization, and exploration of archaeological and cultural heritage.
Human–AI Collaboration
Studying how experts incorporate AI into existing workflows while maintaining professional authority and critical judgment.
Responsible Generative AI
Investigating the ethical and practical implications of using generative AI to represent, reconstruct, and reinterpret cultural objects and histories.
Ultimately, we ask: How can AI expand what experts and the public can explore without compromising authenticity, cultural meaning, or human judgment?
Our work brings together AI, human–AI interaction, conservation, cultural heritage, and the study of human judgment to develop technologies that augment rather than replace expertise.
