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Netwerk Digitaal Erfgoed announces a two-day course in which heritage organisations learn to develop their own AI policy. The course discusses applications such as manuscript transcription, communication and data analysis, but mainly emphasises ethical dilemmas, social impact, unreliable results and bias in data sets.

The Nederlands Film Festival has selected twelve productions for the Gouden Kalf Competitie Digitale Cultuur 2026. Presented during Storyspace at Bibliotheek Utrecht, the works explore how digital techniques can tell stories beyond film and television. According to the NFF, our relationship with new technologies such as AI is a major theme for many creators, with the interaction between people, technology and meaning as a common thread.

DEN shows how cultural organisations without a technical background can use vibe coding to create prototypes, such as forms, checklists, dashboards and audience-oriented tools. The step-by-step plan emphasises that teams must first formulate a clear problem, consciously choose AI assistants or specialized platforms, test results as a conversation and have a developer watch before a public tool goes live.

DEN describes how AI advisers can create prototypes through vibe coding without a lengthy development process: they describe a form, quiz or internal tool in plain language, and an AI assistant writes the code. For cultural organisations, DEN emphasises starting with a concrete problem, testing results iteratively and having a developer review the work before any public-facing tool goes live.

Researchers at De Haagse Hogeschool are developing a method with CHAI with which students and teachers together make concrete agreements about the responsible use of generative AI in higher education. The project translates AI policy, regulations and AI literacy into so-called AI Honor Codes per course or assignment, so that academic integrity, conscious choice and shared responsibility are central.

De Vlaamse Regering has given final approval to a draft decree that makes European rules on transparent political advertising, media freedom and artificial intelligence applicable and enforceable in Flanders. Of particular relevance to the media and cultural sectors, users must be able to see when programmes or content have been artificially generated or manipulated, while the Vlaamse Regulator voor de Media will oversee compliance.

meemoo shows how artificial intelligence makes audiovisual heritage easier to find and reusable. Within the Hermes project, facial recognition in photos, audio classification, voice recognition and automatically generated titles and summaries are being tested, so that hidden information in large archive collections becomes visible more quickly to heritage partners, researchers and users of hetarchief.be.

DEN responds to the AI advice of the Raad voor Cultuur and identifies three challenges for the sector: AI literacy for cultural professionals, a task force that focuses on protection and use, and new revenue models around cultural data. The knowledge institute emphasises that AI is already present in the daily practice of cultural organisations and advocates shared facilities, digital autonomy and more representative AI models based on museum, archive, library and art collections.

The KB is part of an international partnership that has received 5 million euros for the development of a Competence Centre for AI. The centre must help cultural and heritage institutions to apply artificial intelligence responsibly, share knowledge and collaborate better on collections, research and digital infrastructure.

The Raad voor Cultuur advises government and parliament to develop artificial intelligence around public values rather than profit, with the cultural and creative sector as an active co-designer. It calls for measures including a support programme titled ‘Naar een Europese AI-cultuur’, a government commissioner for AI and a civic task force on AI and culture, so that public alternatives, creators’ rights and cultural data carry more weight in AI policy.

SURF is starting the HOSAN project with government, knowledge institutions, media and social partners to develop high-quality and sovereign speech recognition for Dutch. The technology should provide public organisations, including education and research, with reliable automatic transcription, subtitling and voice-activated applications that align with public values and digital autonomy.

Universiteit Leiden reports that the Leiden Declaration, a call from mathematicians for careful and responsible use of AI, has sparked much international debate about science, reliability, authorship and human assessment. The statement received attention in Nature, The New York Times and Scientific American, among others, and now has more than 2,300 signatories, including Robert Dijkgraaf, further broadening the discussion about guidelines for AI use in research and higher education.

VRT looks back on three years of Seeds & Growth for Media, an innovation programme in which startups, creative entrepreneurs and Flemish media companies could test new applications more quickly. Within VRT, this led, among other things, to experiments with artificial intelligence for Radio 1, where audio from broadcasts and podcasts is converted more intelligently into transcripts, fragments and social media content for editors.

meemoo describes the ECHOLOT project, in which fifteen European partners develop open tools and work processes to more easily share, enrich and reuse cultural heritage via Wikimedia Commons and Europeana. For Flemish and Brussels collections, AI is used, among other things, for automatic summaries, descriptions and image recognition, with tests on fine arts and performing arts at partners such as KMSKA, M Leuven, Musea Brugge, Mu.ZEE, Opera Ballet Vlaanderen and De Munt.

The Raad voor Cultuur will present its advice on the influence of artificial intelligence on the cultural and creative sector via a livestream on 29 June. Chairman Kristel Baele explains the advice together with Martijn van der Steen, chairman of the committee of experts that prepared the process; this translates the council's ongoing AI research into concrete recommendations for the sector and policy.

Kennisnet discusses how generative AI can help teachers to more quickly tailor teaching materials to the level, pace, support and interests of students. The article distinguishes between generic AI tools and education-specific applications, but also emphasises preconditions regarding privacy, pedagogical-didactic quality, professional assessment and pilots before schools widely use AI for differentiation.

Netwerk Digitaal Erfgoed announces a meeting on the consequences of AI scraping for the heritage sector and the freely accessible digital domain. Beeld & Geluid, the University of Edinburgh and AIxDESIGN bring together colleagues from the creative and heritage sectors for a panel discussion and zine workshop on digital commons in the AI era.

Waag Futurelab invites creators, designers, architects, teachers and policymakers in the Netherlands to share their needs around AI skills for the European RenAIssance project. Their input will inform AI-supported curricula for creative education, a European AI skills strategy and practice-led pilots that strengthen the values and distinctive character of the creative and cultural sectors.

The municipality of Hof van Twente is offering cultural practitioners, associations and foundations an alternative programme following the cancellation of Cultuurdag. Alongside a drop-in consultation about cultural grants, the municipality is organising an online session titled ‘AI in de praktijk’, where cultural organisations can learn how artificial intelligence may support communication, member engagement, creative ideas and time savings.

The Vrije Universiteit Brussel is a partner in AIM-PRO, a three-year Erasmus+ project that aims to strengthen responsible AI literacy and future-oriented digital skills in European education. The VUB brings expertise in educational technology and pedagogical innovation and helps develop a human-centred, multidisciplinary approach to AI education.

Bnetwerk calls on library professionals and visitors to participate in the ELAN/ADELE Digital & AI Readiness Survey by EBLIDA. The European questionnaire maps how libraries implement digital technologies and artificial intelligence. The results should help with future policy and provide insight into what libraries need to work responsibly with AI.

SURF advises educational and research institutions to remain cautious with Microsoft 365 Copilot. A new update of the DPIA concludes that Microsoft has made improvements, but that not all privacy risks have yet been sufficiently mitigated and institutions must carefully assess use per application.

DEN and Innovation:Lab are organising the Hackathon AI: from idea to concept on November 4. Cultural organisations explore how they can use AI responsibly and practically, develop their own idea into a concrete concept and receive guidance on opportunities, preconditions and next steps.

Kennisnet describes how generative AI increases cyber risks for schools by making phishing, malware and misuse of AI systems more accessible. The organisation advocates an integrated approach with technical security, awareness, incident response and wise use of AI tools to strengthen the digital resilience of education.