MCN 2026

This session will provide an overview of the Museum of Modern Art’s implementation of new artificial intelligence tools in support of its access and accessibility priorities. The discussion will detail the decision-making involved in assessing and judiciously integrating AI into workflows, focusing on the identification and description of art assets. The presentation will recount three projects: identifying artworks in installation images; generating alt-text descriptions for images; and transcribing media assets with AI, as well as touching on available AI tools the Museum deemed as unsuitable or inappropriate for use.

This talk will address considerations applicable to other GLAM environments, from the specific challenges of working with a corpus of complex Modern Art material to assessing the suitability, accuracy, and resource expenditure involved in using artificial intelligence tools. The session will also detail the Museum-specific issues influencing the design and viability of the tools used, and consider the degree to which these models are replicable in other environments. In keeping with the conference's focus on Trust and Longevity, we will discuss the benefits of augmenting and repurposing Museum data to create a more expansive and trustworthy record of MoMA’s exhibition activity, and provide information for colleagues in the field weighing the costs and benefits of using AI in collections management.

This session would be well-suited for incorporation into a longer panel focused on institutional workflows, new platform adoption, or the experimental use of artificial intelligence tools in GLAM settings.