Recommendations on Using Artificial Intelligence in Archival Appraisal and Selection

This article reports on discussions from a three-day webinar about artificial intelligence (AI) in archival appraisal and selection. Increasingly, workshops and research are conducted to discuss AI and archives. This article is an example of this growing interest in the potential of AI for the field of archives. Yet, within the field, discussions about how AI can be applied in archival appraisal and selection is still limited. To advance a conversation on the issue, and particularly on ways to use AI in archival appraisal and selection, we organized a three-day webinar in 2022 with a diverse group of researchers and practitioners involved in AI and archival research. Our discussions revealed that implementing AI in archival appraisal and selection largely begins with identifying the need for AI. Our discussion further demonstrated that developing a set of guidelines or a framework for the use of AI in archival appraisal and selection is not possible. For example, as stated below, contexts are different, and a one-size-fits-all approach is likely to disregard the plethora of influencing factors. However, there are several questions or a list of things that researchers, practitioners, and organizations can ask/do in order to implement AI in archival appraisal and selection.