Artificial intelligence and the future(s) of archival theory and practice

This paper reproduces the text of the third Konarski Lecture, which was presented to an audience in Warsaw on 23 October 2024. It offers a survey of recent developments in artificial intelligence and considers how they relate to archival practices and concepts. It asks what changes they can be expected to bring to the creation, maintenance, preservation, and use of records and archives, and how they can be expected to affect the daily working practices of record creators, archivists, and users of archival services. It also considers whether the growth of artificial intelligence might have implications for our theoretical understandings of archives.