AI Reshapes Cultural Heritage Protection, Experts Say

Experts gathered at the 48th session of the UNESCO World Heritage Committee in Busan, South Korea, agreed that artificial intelligence is profoundly transforming how cultural heritage is preserved, monitored, and shared with the public. At a side event titled “AI and World Heritage: Digital Transformation of Cultural Heritage Protection,” held on July 26, representatives from UNESCO, government agencies, universities, and research institutions explored how AI is opening new possibilities for heritage protection and restoration, according to Xinhua News Agency.

A Historic Moment for Cultural Heritage

The side event took place just one day after “Jingdezhen Handmade Porcelain Industry Heritage” was officially inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List on July 25, becoming China’s 61st World Heritage site and the world’s first “porcelain”-themed World Heritage site. The inscription marked the culmination of an 11-year application process for the heritage site in northeastern Jiangxi Province, which spans 5 areas, 15 elements, and 45 heritage points representing a complete production system “from clay to porcelain” dating from the 10th to 19th centuries.

The timing was significant, as Guangming Daily noted that digital technology has become a core tool in the post-inscription era, providing new avenues for telling China’s story and enabling broad social participation in heritage preservation.

Experts on AI’s Transformative Potential

Lazare Eloundou Assomo, Director of the UNESCO World Heritage Centre, delivered opening remarks emphasizing that “digital transformation is no longer a future vision, but is changing the way people understand, monitor, and protect world heritage.” He called on the World Heritage Committee to strengthen systematic research on AI and world heritage protection.

Ahmed Rehma, Assistant Minister of Tourism and Antiquities of Egypt, highlighted AI’s broad application prospects in archaeological excavation, underground remains detection, and cultural relic protection, noting that AI and digital technologies are making heritage protection and management “more intelligent and efficient.”

Dmitry Voyakin, a Kazakhstan UNESCO National Commission member and heritage consultant at the UCL Institute of Archaeology, observed that AI is driving cultural heritage protection “from ‘recording’ to ‘prediction,’” while cautioning that its effectiveness depends on high-quality, verifiable data support.

The side event was co-organized by the World Internet Conference Cultural Heritage Digitalization Professional Committee, Tencent Sustainable Social Value Division, and the China Cultural Heritage Protection Foundation, with guidance from China’s National Cultural Heritage Administration, according to the World Internet Conference.

From Porcelain Shards to Digital Knowledge

The event showcased concrete applications of AI in heritage protection, including Tencent’s “Digital Jingdezhen” project. Weng Yanjun, Director of the Jingdezhen Imperial Kiln Museum, described how millions of porcelain shards excavated from sites such as the Imperial Kiln Factory had traditionally required extremely inefficient manual matching. The multimodal AI dataset developed for the project has “fundamentally achieved the leap from a ‘pile of materials’ to a ‘knowledge base,’” he said.

The dataset covers more than 30,000 academic journals, archaeological reports, and professional books, 5,000-plus ceramic gene specimens, and nearly 1,000 representative porcelain items. AI technology for matching porcelain shards has been validated on 246 pieces of large dragon jar fragments, with plans to expand to 15,000 pieces.

Chen Juhong, Vice President of Tencent, proposed three principles for responsible AI use in cultural heritage: AI is a tool for verification, not a shortcut for imagination; AI is a key to solving problems, not a stage for showing off; and AI should make cultural heritage shared by hundreds of millions of people.

The event also featured an AI robot interactive demonstration area, showcasing AI applications in human-computer interaction and cultural communication, as reported by Tencent News.

Global Collaboration and Challenges Ahead

The side event highlighted the “World Internet Conference Cultural Heritage Digitalization Case Collection (2026),” which selected 45 cases from nearly 200 submissions across 13 countries and regions, as detailed on the World Internet Conference website.

Experts agreed that AI is driving profound changes in cultural heritage protection concepts, technical methods, and communication approaches, with applications including digital collection, intelligent analysis, risk monitoring, virtual restoration, and immersive display. However, they also identified significant challenges: data security, technology adaptation, talent shortages, and the digital divide. These challenges, they stressed, require strengthened international cooperation to ensure responsible technology application.

Looking Forward

As Lv Zhou, a Tsinghua University professor who moderated the event, put it, the successful inscription of Jingdezhen’s heritage “is not the end, but a new starting point for cultural inheritance and international exchange.” Digital technology, he said, provides “wings for telling China’s story well, broad social participation, and local sustainable development.”

The convergence of AI and world heritage protection represents both a technological opportunity and a civilizational responsibility. As the World Internet Conference Cultural Heritage Digitalization Professional Committee continues to serve as a platform for international cooperation, the path forward will require sustained collaboration among international organizations, government agencies, cultural institutions, universities, and technology companies to ensure that AI serves the preservation and transmission of humanity’s shared heritage for generations to come.