Is AI Artificial Heritage? Key Takeaways from Our Panel

The question is no longer "Will AI impact the heritage industry?" but "How do we govern this powerful new tool ethically and effectively?"

Last week, Heritage Workshop, hosted by our founder Dr James Lesh, brought together leading experts from across the heritage ecosystem for a critical and frank discussion: "Artificial Heritage? AI and the heritage industry." at the Australia ICOMOS National Conference 2025 in Ballarat on Wadawurrung Country.

The panel, featuring an architect, a historian, a digital archaeologist, a local council asset manager, specialist consultants, and a First Nations digital storyteller, delivered a wide-ranging and necessary critique on the technology’s role.

• Meher Bahl, Founder, Restore Conservation Services and Defectech, specialises in architecture and conservation, investigating how AI, photogrammetry, and digital modelling can complement and enhance traditional conservation practice.

• Brett Leavy, Founder, Bilbie XR Labs / Champion, Indijiverse, is a First Nations digital storyteller and creator of the Virtual Songlines Digital Twin (VSDT), a 10D geospatial platform that simulates cultural heritage landscapes.

• Dr Deborah Lee-Talbot, Historian, Centre for Contemporary Histories, Deakin University / Founder, Colourful Histories, specialises in nineteenth-century archives and marginalised histories, who explores AI as a research and outreach tool.

• Dr Aleksandra Michalewicz, Senior Research Data Specialist / Digital Research Academic Convenor, The University of Melbourne, is a digital archaeologist focused on data governance, digital and data ethics, and interdisciplinary research design.

• Janita Norman, Built Heritage Adviser, City of Greater Bendigo, is a leader in strategic management, conservation management planning, and the use of modern imaging and documentation technologies for heritage assets.

• Dr Kim Roberts, Associate Director, Urbis, is an architect, heritage consultant, and researcher specializing in the conservation, adaptation, and re-imagining of complex heritage buildings, urban environments, and landscapes.

Dr Lesh set the tone, defining AI as a deeply disruptive tool that we have a professional and ethical duty to discuss. The discussion dove straight into the core challenges:

• The New 'Raw Material': The panel grappled with the sheer volume of digital data now being captured (Meher Bahl) and the ethical responsibilities this creates, particularly through the data-critical lens of digital archaeology (Dr Alex Michalewicz).

• Sovereignty and Trust: A critical point of discussion was how heritage professionals, especially when dealing with colonial archives (Dr Deborah Lee-Talbot) or creating immersive digital twins of sovereign First Nations landscapes (Brett Leavy), must respect cultural authority and actively prevent AI from 'hallucinating' or misrepresenting Indigenous knowledge.

• The Future Record: Speakers explored the practical reality of AI, from building bespoke, personalised tools to meet industry needs, to the brilliant concept of the 'living' conservation management plan (Janita Norman). This led to a key question: how do we ensure the massive amount of "Artificial Heritage" we are creating today doesn't just disappear due to software rot, and how do we govern this future record?

The consensus was clear: AI is no longer hypothetical—the transformation is underway.

As Dr Lesh concluded, this technology requires our human expertise more than ever. AI is a powerful tool, not an oracle; we must set the parameters and critically evaluate the outputs for bias and integrity. The future isn't the 'AI professional'; it is the heritage professional who knows how to use AI effectively, efficiently, and ethically.

Our sincere thanks to all our panelists — Meher Bahl, Brett Leavy, Dr. Deb Lee-Talbot, Dr. Alex Michalewicz, Janita Norman, and Dr. Kim Roberts — for an incredible and insightful event.