TAI Tools: Strategic Engagement with Tech Companies

Posted on March 8, 2026March 8, 2026 by trustarchives

AI Technology Companies (“AI Tech Co”) increasingly seek what archives hold—rich media collections to train their multimodal and large language models (“AI”). Many archives have already had their online collections scraped without permission and are now facing offers from companies eager to secure further access.
To support archives navigating these pressures, we are developing decision-making rubrics to help institutions assess collaboration opportunities with AI Tech Cos.

These tools are designed to guide archives in weighing whether such deals represent sustainable business opportunities that strengthen their futures—or risky bargains that could compromise their long-term best interests. This paper serves as part of that tool, and is intended to help as a comprehensive resource for guidance on some key considerations and critical questions to ask.

In this paper we cover:
• What is Generative AI?
• What type of companies want to obtain your data?
• 10 Key Things to Consider when looking at AI Tech Companies and why this is important
• Five more key areas to think about (introspective)
• Your Internal Technical Preparation
• Questions to ask the AI Tech Co.

Tools

Posted on March 8, 2026March 8, 2026 by trustarchives

Generative artificial intelligence is rapidly reshaping how audiovisual materials are created, reused, and interpreted. For archives, libraries, and cultural heritage organizations, these changes raise urgent questions about authenticity, rights, access, and the responsible use of archival materials. This set of tools, developed by the Working Groups of the Trust in Archives Initiative, is designed to help archives navigate this evolving landscape. The toolkit provides practical guidance on issues including authentication and provenance, licensing considerations, working with technology companies, and the development of shared taxonomies to describe AI-generated or AI-altered materials.

Because both AI technologies and archival practices continue to evolve, these tools are intended as a living resource. They will be updated and expanded over time, and feedback from the community is welcomed to help inform future revisions and the development of additional tools.

TAI Tools: Authentication

Posted on March 8, 2026March 8, 2026 by trustarchives

As AI-generated media becomes increasingly commonplace, it is more important than ever for archives to know and be assured of the provenance and authenticity of the records they take into their custody.* There are technological methods being developed to detect AI-generation or modification and to convey or disclose provenance information. However, these mechanisms may remain out of reach for many content producers and smaller archives– at least in the short-term– due to financial and personnel limitations. There is still a need for accessible approaches for examining provenance and verifying authenticity in the age of generative AI that do not require specialized tools. To this end, the Authenticity Working Group is developing a simple checklist of questions that archives can ask depositors as part of their due diligence in ascertaining the reliability of the records they accession. Archives can retain the answers to these questions for their records and develop their own systems to share this data with other institutions they work with.

Archival producers and media makers are similarly concerned about the authenticity of the media they obtain from archives for use in documentaries. The second section contains questions that producers can use when working with archives, or that archives can answer for themselves to attest to the authenticity of materials already in their collections.