Fantastic Futures 2025: “AI Everywhere, All at Once” was the annual AI4LAM conference, held 3–5 December 2025 at the British Library in London.
AI4LAM brings together practitioners and researchers working on AI and machine learning applications in cultural heritage — libraries, archives, and museums. This year’s theme explored how GLAM institutions can navigate the rapid and uneven integration of AI into their collections, services, and operations — ethically, sustainably, and at scale. Below a recording of my lightning talk about ISSA and the DEERIN prototypes developed for this project:
Conference themes
The programme addressed a broad set of challenges facing GLAM institutions under accelerating AI adoption, including:
- Ethical and responsible AI implementation
- Environmental and economic sustainability of AI at scale
- Collection digitisation and multimodal access
- Cybersecurity and data governance
- Human-centred design and community accountability
It was great to see the wider GLAM sector sharing experiences and knowledge about AI in their institutions and collections, and to catch up with freinds and colleagues! Recordings are available on the AI4LAM YouTube channel, and the full conference repository is archived at doi.org/10.23636/54k0-ny43.