VIENNA.- From January 19 to 23, 2026, the Belvedere will host the eighth edition of its international conference series, The Art Museum in the Digital Age. The upcoming conference will focus on the complex interrelations between truth, fake news, and epistemic authority in the context of digital transformation. In light of the rise of disinformation, AI-generated content, and algorithmic bias, the conference will examine how museums can rethink their role as trustworthy spaces for knowledge dissemination and assume digital responsibility.

The conference will open on Monday, January 19, at 4 pm with a welcome address from the Belvedere. The first panel will focus on legal and ethical issues related to the use of artificial intelligence. The following three afternoons will feature further thematic online sessions on knowledge transfer and source criticism, digital responsibility and cultural data, and both digital and human authorship. The presentations will examine topics such as UNESCO frameworks for AI use in the cultural sector, algorithmic biases in digital collections, open-access infrastructures, the application of large language models in museum practice, and emerging forms of authorship in the digital realm.

On Monday, Oonagh Murphy (Goldsmiths, University of London) will deliver the keynote lecture titled Responsible AI as a Cultural Imperative. The lecture will take place on site and will also be streamed via Zoom, with simultaneous interpretation. A workshop for registered participants and a panel discussion with international experts such as Jane Finnis (The Audience Agency), Lukas Fuchsgruber (Wikimedia Germany) and Sofie Taes (KU Leuven & Europeana Network Association & DigitGLAM) will take place on Friday, January 23, on-site at the Belvedere 21 in Vienna. All other program sessions will be conducted exclusively online via Zoom.

The Art Museum in the Digital Age conference series is one of the world's leading platforms for discourse on digital museum research. Its most recent edition, held in 2025, drew over 500 participants from 58 countries, reflecting the global interest in topics such as AI, digital authenticity, and knowledge cultures within the museum sector.

The conference is organized by Christian Huemer, Sylvia Stegbauer, Johanna Aufreiter, Alexandra Sommer, and the Belvedere Research Center. The conference committee comprises experts from the Belvedere and international institutions, among them Chiara Zuanni (University for Continuing Education Krems), Ross Parry (University of Leicester) and Oonagh Murphy (Goldsmiths, University of London).

Participation is free of charge. The conference languages are German and English.