Greek Culture Minister Lina Mendoni held private talks with UNESCO Director General Khaled El-Enany and UNESCO Assistant Director General for Culture Nayef Al-Fayez to review the broad framework of cooperation between Greece and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization.
According to a statement from the Greek Ministry of Culture, the talks included a substantial exchange of views on how the Greek ministry, through its specialist staff and targeted partnerships, could contribute to documenting, conserving, safeguarding and promoting cultural heritage, particularly intangible heritage, in African countries, within a cooperation framework to be established under UNESCO's coordination.
Particular emphasis was placed on the role Greece could play in providing expertise to African countries in areas including the transfer of know-how for producing museum replicas, museology, museum administration, training of cultural professionals, and protecting cultural heritage during public works projects, fields in which Greece has long and proven experience.
Upcoming World Heritage nominations
Mendoni briefed the UNESCO director general on Greece's forthcoming entries to the World Heritage List. During the discussion that followed, she referred to nominations already completed as well as those still in preparation.
The ministry said the file for the archaeological site of Nicopolis is first in line for submission and at an advanced stage, along with the candidacy of Cycladic cheesemaking for inscription on the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.
Both El-Enany and Al-Fayez praised Greece's productive and leading role within UNESCO, noting the close and constructive cooperation of the Ministry of Culture on matters concerning both tangible and intangible culture, as well as on cultural diplomacy issues that require specialist handling.
Conference on AI and living heritage
With El-Enany and Mendoni in attendance, the Ministry of Culture and UNESCO co-organized a conference at the National Gallery in Athens on the relationship between artificial intelligence and living cultural heritage. The event highlighted the international dialogue underway on artificial intelligence and cultural heritage, with particular focus on intangible heritage and the communities that preserve and pass it on.
The ministry said the conference presented the potential of artificial intelligence for research, documentation, safeguarding and promotion of living heritage, alongside the need to deploy new technologies on human-centred, responsible and ethically grounded terms.
Mendoni on the risks and questions raised by AI
Opening the proceedings, Mendoni focused on the key questions raised alongside the exciting prospects that artificial intelligence presents. She said that in culture, AI applications offer new possibilities for documenting, studying, interpreting and transmitting cultural heritage, widening access to knowledge, supporting education, enriching cultural experience and creating new fields of artistic expression. She said these possibilities were significant but not neutral or free of risk, and that the issue became especially clear in the case of intangible cultural heritage.
Living heritage, she said, is not a fixed remnant of the past or a body of information that can simply be recorded, stored and archived. She said it exists and renews itself through practice, participation, collective memory and transmission from generation to generation, incorporating knowledge, skills, values and forms of expression that are continually shaped and recreated by the communities themselves. She said that when embodied, collective knowledge meets computational modelling, automated searching, processing, analysis and data correlation aimed at producing new content, exciting prospects come together with pressing questions and critical challenges.
Mendoni asked who decides which cultural records become data, how they are described, and for what purposes they are used. She asked how the genuine consent of communities, correct attribution of origin, control over data and fair distribution of benefits could be ensured, and how algorithmic bias, distortion and appropriation of cultural expressions could be prevented. She asked how representativeness, authenticity, cultural significance and the organic evolution of living heritage could be protected.
Call for human-centred innovation
Seeking answers, Mendoni said these questions allow neither uncritical technological enthusiasm nor fearful rejection of innovation. She said they require knowledge, transparency, cooperation and, above all, the genuine participation of communities. She said technological capability cannot be the sole criterion for application, and that innovation must remain human-centred and community-centred, strengthening the ability of bearers of intangible heritage to determine, or at least have a strong say in, what is preserved, what is shared, what is transformed and, above all, on what terms.
Concluding, Mendoni said Greece is investing in cooperation with universities and research centres, in developing expertise and in properly training cultural professionals. She said particular weight is being given to the quality and governance of cultural data, protection of intellectual property and creators' rights, transparency of applications and equal access to the benefits of innovation. She said Greece is also seeking an active presence in European and international dialogue so that the particularities and values of culture are taken into account from the outset in the design of new technologies.
Ethics and community participation
Speakers at the conference placed particular emphasis on ethical issues, the need for genuine community participation, and protecting cultural expressions from risks linked to the use of new technologies. Research and technological applications were also presented, with examples drawn from handicrafts, music and weaving traditions.
Participants in the discussions included Mendoni, El-Enany, Al-Fayez, Kenya's permanent representative to UNESCO Peter K. Ngure, and Greece's permanent representative to UNESCO Georgios Koumoutsakos. The keynote speaker was Professor Hanna Schreiber, holder of the UNESCO Chair on Intangible Cultural Heritage in Public and Global Governance.
Also taking part were UNESCO goodwill ambassador Konstantia Sbokou, Ministry of Culture officials, UNESCO representatives, and delegates from the Hellenic Copyright Organization, Creative Commons, the National Centre for Scientific Research "Demokritos", and the Foundation for Research and Technology Hellas, along with members of the academic and research community.
