AI and institutional transformation: care, access and learning at Tate Britain

This article examines Electronic Life, a collaborative programme at Tate Britain that explored artificial intelligence (AI) as a tool for institutional reflection, participatory learning, and creative experimentation. The project positioned AI technologies not as neutral tools but as collaborators in collective learning, co-creation, and institutional inquiry. Developed in response to Tate Britain’s 2023 rehang, the programme engaged marginalised youth and community groups in both dialogues and hands-on experience with AI, foregrounding questions of voice, representation, and institutional authority. Drawing on practice-led reflection and research interviews – including a conversation with Ruchika Gurung (Curator of Community & Partnerships, Tate Britain) – the article contextualises and examines how AI can function as an active participant within what is termed social AI practice, disrupting hierarchies, amplifying marginalised voices, and enabling creative, reflexive practice. Situated within Tate’s wider commitment to social engagement, the article offers a critical framework for participatory AI in museums, highlighting how care-centred approaches to technology can reshape learning, authorship, and community relationships in cultural institutions.