Creativity and Awareness in Co-Creation of Art Using Artificial Intelligence-Based Systems in Heritage Education

The article investigates a learning setting contextualising the use of artificial intelligence in heritage education, with a particular focus on AI systems utilising text-to-image processes. The setting is the one of a university interdisciplinary seminar in communication in South Tyrol, a border region in the north of Italy shaped by a strong cultural identity. The paper illustrates a didactic experience introducing a highly technical and, for most of the students in the chosen context, challenging topic, such as AI. The teaching addresses a critical approach to AI, such as dataset constraints, sustainability, and authorship, and focuses on text-to-image algorithms and artistic co-creation, namely, the shifting role of the artist from sole creator to initiator/collaborator shaping the AI system’s output. The aim of the paper is to contribute to the debate in heritage education on teaching and learning using AI-based systems. The latter are seen as a potential tool for the engagement of students in understanding heritage and its safeguarding and in the relationship between community, territory, and active participation, as emphasised by both the “UNESCO Convention on Intangible Cultural Heritage” and the “Council of Europe Framework Convention on the Value of Cultural Heritage for Society”. However, the current boundaries of AI, particularly in terms of bias and limitations of datasets, must be addressed and reflected on.