  Archival institutions and programs worldwide work to ensure that the records
of governments, organizations, communities, and individuals are preserved for
future generations as cultural heritage, as sources of rights, and as vehicles
for holding the past accountable and to inform the future. This commitment is
guaranteed through the adoption of strategic and technical measures for the
long-term preservation of digital assets in any medium and form - textual,
visual, or aural. Public and private archives are the largest providers of data
big and small in the world and collectively host yottabytes of trusted data, to
be preserved forever. Several aspects of retention and preservation,
arrangement and description, management and administrations, and access and use
are still open to improvement. In particular, recent advances in Artificial
Intelligence (AI) open the discussion as to whether AI can support the ongoing
availability and accessibility of trustworthy public records. This paper
presents preliminary results of the InterPARES Trust AI (I Trust AI)
international research partnership, which aims to (1) identify and develop
specific AI technologies to address critical records and archives challenges;
(2) determine the benefits and risks of employing AI technologies on records
and archives; (3) ensure that archival concepts and principles inform the
development of responsible AI; and (4) validate outcomes through a conglomerate
of case studies and demonstrations.
