Dr. James O'Sullivan:

The Broadcasting (Amendment) Bill is a timely and necessary step towards enhancing public access to RTÉ’s valuable archives and recognises the critical role these archives play in preserving Ireland’s cultural heritage. Providing true open access to RTÉ’s extensive collections would foster greater public engagement with national history and ensure that these important materials can be utilised by a wide range of scholars, educators, cultural institutions and, of course, the general public, which is possibly the most important group of archives users.

In my capacity as a senior lecturer in digital humanities at University College Cork and, currently, a secondee in the area of artificial intelligence at the Higher Education Authority, I welcome the opportunity to provide my input, which is largely from the perspective of the technical aspects, and I have submitted materials outlining key issues that I believe warrant careful consideration in the examination and progression of this Bill. I will briefly summarise these issues as follows, first, in respect of preservation and access, and second, in respect of the role artificial intelligence in archival contexts, which is changing by the day.

Regarding preservation and access, RTÉ’s archives are a vital national resource, containing unique materials of significant cultural, historical and educational value. Ensuring that these archives are preserved for future generations and made accessible is essential. Building an archive of this sort - or a digital archive, because the archive is already there - is a major undertaking. I am sure the ongoing preservation and digitisation of what is a diverse and complex multimodal collections requires extensive resources. Making such an archive open in the digital sense requires careful consideration of how the project can be sustained in the longer term. Further digitisation processes, metadata generation, digital storage and preservation technologies are all incredibly resource-intensive. To ensure the archive’s longevity, a robust plan for ongoing maintenance - because, as was discussed in the previous session, best practices will change - funding, and staff expertise must be developed. This not only includes technical sustainability but also human resources for curation, metadata enrichment, user support and so on and so forth.

Public archives and digital libraries of a similar scale follow a range of technical standards to ensure accessibility, interoperability and long-term preservation. For this endeavour to be successful, careful consideration will need to be given to the selection of metadata standards, interoperability and data exchange, web integration and so on. Everyone thinks their standard is the best standard. This is before we get to issues of licensing and copyright arrangements, which are beyond my expertise.

Ingesting RTÉ’s archival materials into existing repositories such as Europeana, would enhance discoverability and the data's longevity, but is no small undertaking.

Regarding our national climate change agenda, minimal computing approaches might be considered but, again, these are hugely challenging.

In the context of artificial intelligence in archival contexts, while AI offers powerful tools for making archives more accessible, such as through automatic transcription, search optimisation, and metadata enhancement, if we were to go down that road with the RTÉ archives, we would have to ensure transparency will be put in place by documenting the way AI algorithms have been used to manipulate and enhance the archival processes. Providing access to logs or version histories for digital objects, including AI interactions, can reinforce trust in the authenticity of the archive. However, this will require major collaborations between archivists, technologists and legal experts. There is also a growing risk of archival material being misused or manipulated through AI technologies. For example, the creation of synthetic media that could alter or misrepresent archival content poses a threat to the authenticity and trustworthiness of historical records. There are, of course, solutions to this, but it is crucial that any further development of an open RTÉ archive in a digital sense would include provisions for safeguarding the integrity of archival materials in the digital age.

I will conclude there because I am conscious of the time. RTÉ's archives contain materials of unique cultural significance and morally they should be made openly accessible. However, practically doing so is a major undertaking that has to be done right and in a manner that delivers adequate return on what would be substantial investment.