Public AI Assistant to Worldwide Knowledge: 21st Century Knowledge Preservation & Access with AI

The Stanford Open Virtual Assistant Lab, with sponsorship from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation and the Stanford Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence (HAI), organized an invitation-only workshop focused on the concept of a public AI assistant to worldwide knowledge and its implications for the future of the free web. The preservation, documentation, and curation of indigenous languages, records of under-represented communities, and access to public knowledge is a formidable yet critical task that builds on our understanding of the world. This forum will cover the technologies, logistics, and ethical considerations of improving the collection, access, and research of enormous corpora in all languages. We will investigate how AI addresses the scale of the problem at hand and the need for open, public solutions that honor indigenous data sovereignty and community rights. Speakers: Jefferson Bailey - Director of Archiving & Data Services, Internet Archive Audra Diptee - Caribbean and African History, Carleton University Claudio Pinhanez - Principal Research Scientist, IBM Brazil Abigail Potter - Senior Innovation Specialist, Library of Congress Leila Zia - Head of Research, Wikimedia Foundation Moderator: Grant Parker - Classics, African and African American Studies, Stanford University This workshop was recorded on February 13, 2025 at Stanford University.