We are pleased to share that Prof. Hanna Schreiber participated as a panelist in the Second Edition of the Naples Conference on Cultural Heritage in the 21st Century, organized by UNESCO.
Prof. Schreiber contributed to Session 3: “The Economic Dimensions of Cultural Heritage: Towards a Rights-Based Approach”, held on 4 June 2025. The session explored the intersection of cultural heritage and economic activity through the lens of human rights, sustainability, and ethical engagement.
She was joined on the panel by:
🔹 Mr. Ebrahim Alkhalifa (Bahrain),
🔹 Ms. Kirstine Møller (Denmark),
🔹 Ms. Ananya Bhattacharya (India).
The session was moderated by Ms. Fumiko Ohinata, Secretary of the 2003 UNESCO Convention.
The panel focused on challenges such as over-commercialization, touristification, and misappropriation of cultural heritage, and discussed how to support communities in making informed and equitable decisions about the economic use of their tangible and intangible heritage.
Prof. Schreiber focused her intervention on the implications of Artificial Intelligence (AI) for cultural heritage, emphasizing both opportunities and ethical risks. She highlighted how AI can support more inclusive access to culture and assist in safeguarding practices – while also warning against potential misuses, such as cultural misappropriation, decontextualization, and algorithmic bias.
Her intervention was consulted within the UNESCO Chair team AI section (prof. Bartosz Pielinski, dr Julia Krzesicka, and Emilia Wisnios).
Her contribution underlined the importance of a rights-based approach to digital transformation, aligning with broader UNESCO priorities and the goals of MONDIACULT 2025. Drawing on her legal and interdisciplinary expertise, she called for international frameworks that ensure emerging technologies serve communities and protect the integrity of cultural heritage.
In her intervention, Hanna Schreiber described „little hopes” and „big realities” of AI in the field of cultural heritage:
Hope – where AI supports communities, e.g., through indigenous languages revitalisation ( for example in Brazil or New Zealand) and smart tourism management (in overcrowded cities such as Venice or Dubrovnik).
Reality – where global AI development is shaped by a few, but incredibly powerful big tech companies whose incentives is primarily their own growth, not the benefits of heritage communities. Their use of cultural data – data grabbing – often conflict with human rights and cultural diversity and leads to digital colonialism, widely analysed in the critical AI literature (Sylwia Czubkowska, Kate Crawford, Cathy O’Neil).
Her key message:
AI is neither neutral nor apolitical. For the broader heritage sector, it remains a black box. Thus ,we desperately need a critical reflection and awareness about how our valuable cultural data is collected, used, and exploited. We urgently need critical AI – literacy (and critical AI-studies – not solely AI studies!), active actions towards ethical AI design, and co-creation models allowing for community agency. UNESCO’s Recommendation on the Ethics of AI could serve as a compass here. Cultural heritage, as part of our commons, must not become collateral in the pursuit of data-driven growth.
Livestream of the conference and more information could be found on the UNESCO website.
The government of Italy together with the city of Naples organized a fantastic cultural programme celebrating the tangible and intangible heritage of this beautiful city. Thank you!
Photo: Hanna Schreiber
