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Applying AI to digital archives: trust, collaboration and shared professional ethics

Policy makers produce digital records on a daily basis. A selection of records is then preserved in archival repositories. However, getting access to these archival materials is extremely complicated for many reasons – including data protection, sensitivity, national security, and copyright. Artific...

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Main Authors: Lise Jaillant, Arran Rees
Format: Default Article
Published: 2022
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Online Access:https://hdl.handle.net/2134/21407256.v1
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author Lise Jaillant
Arran Rees
author_facet Lise Jaillant
Arran Rees
author_sort Lise Jaillant (1384974)
collection Figshare
description Policy makers produce digital records on a daily basis. A selection of records is then preserved in archival repositories. However, getting access to these archival materials is extremely complicated for many reasons – including data protection, sensitivity, national security, and copyright. Artificial Intelligence can be applied to archives to make them more accessible, but it is still at an experimental stage. While skills gaps contribute to keeping archives “dark”, it is also essential to examine issues of mistrust and miscommunication. This article argues that although civil servants, archivists and academics have similar professional principles articulated through professional codes of ethics, these are not often communicated to each other. This lack of communication leads to feelings of mistrust between stakeholders. Mistrust of technology also contributes to the barriers to effective implementation of AI tools. Therefore, we propose that surfacing the shared professional ethics between stakeholders can contribute to deeper collaborations between humans. In turn, these collaborations can lead to the building of trust in AI systems and tools. The research is informed by semi-structured interviews with 30 government professionals, archivists, historians, digital humanists, and computer scientists. Previous research has largely focused on preservation of digital records, rather than access to these records, and on archivists rather than records creators such as government professionals. This article is the first to examine the application of AI to digital archives as an issue that requires trust and collaboration across the entire archival circle (from record creators to archivists, and from archivists to users).
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spelling rr-article-214072562022-11-17T00:00:00Z Applying AI to digital archives: trust, collaboration and shared professional ethics Lise Jaillant (1384974) Arran Rees (14017206) Born-digital archives Digitised archives Artificial Intelligence Government Trust Collaboration Ethics Professional codes Policy makers produce digital records on a daily basis. A selection of records is then preserved in archival repositories. However, getting access to these archival materials is extremely complicated for many reasons – including data protection, sensitivity, national security, and copyright. Artificial Intelligence can be applied to archives to make them more accessible, but it is still at an experimental stage. While skills gaps contribute to keeping archives “dark”, it is also essential to examine issues of mistrust and miscommunication. This article argues that although civil servants, archivists and academics have similar professional principles articulated through professional codes of ethics, these are not often communicated to each other. This lack of communication leads to feelings of mistrust between stakeholders. Mistrust of technology also contributes to the barriers to effective implementation of AI tools. Therefore, we propose that surfacing the shared professional ethics between stakeholders can contribute to deeper collaborations between humans. In turn, these collaborations can lead to the building of trust in AI systems and tools. The research is informed by semi-structured interviews with 30 government professionals, archivists, historians, digital humanists, and computer scientists. Previous research has largely focused on preservation of digital records, rather than access to these records, and on archivists rather than records creators such as government professionals. This article is the first to examine the application of AI to digital archives as an issue that requires trust and collaboration across the entire archival circle (from record creators to archivists, and from archivists to users). 2022-11-17T00:00:00Z Text Journal contribution 2134/21407256.v1 https://figshare.com/articles/journal_contribution/Applying_AI_to_digital_archives_trust_collaboration_and_shared_professional_ethics/21407256 CC BY 4.0
spellingShingle Born-digital archives
Digitised archives
Artificial Intelligence
Government
Trust
Collaboration
Ethics
Professional codes
Lise Jaillant
Arran Rees
Applying AI to digital archives: trust, collaboration and shared professional ethics
title Applying AI to digital archives: trust, collaboration and shared professional ethics
title_full Applying AI to digital archives: trust, collaboration and shared professional ethics
title_fullStr Applying AI to digital archives: trust, collaboration and shared professional ethics
title_full_unstemmed Applying AI to digital archives: trust, collaboration and shared professional ethics
title_short Applying AI to digital archives: trust, collaboration and shared professional ethics
title_sort applying ai to digital archives: trust, collaboration and shared professional ethics
topic Born-digital archives
Digitised archives
Artificial Intelligence
Government
Trust
Collaboration
Ethics
Professional codes
url https://hdl.handle.net/2134/21407256.v1