Bringing the Past Alive: Artificial Intelligence as a Knowledge Medium for Cultural Heritage Engagement
Year: 2026
Type: article
Abstract: This paper explores how artificial intelligence is transforming engagement with cultural heritage from static preservation toward interactive knowledge production. Drawing on media-historical perspectives, it proposes the concept of knowledge liberation to interpret successive stages in the evolution of knowledge environments, from oral transmission and print culture to digital networks and AI-mediated interaction. Within this framework, cultural knowledge becomes progressively less constrained by the material conditions of its transmission. The paper examines several AI-enabled platforms developed at Peking University that support large-scale digitisation, structured data extraction, knowledge-graph construction, and multimodal cultural content generation. It argues that AI is emerging as a new knowledge medium that reshapes research methodologies, expands modes of cultural representation, and strengthens connections between humanities scholarship and public knowledge production.
Source: Journal of Humanities and AI
Author: Jun Wang
Institution: Peking University
Language: English
Subfield: Literature and Literary Theory
Field: Arts and Humanities
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: hybrid
OpenAlex ID: W7147543944
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