@inproceedings{wimalasuriya-etal-2026-prompting,
    title = "Prompting the Past: Linguistic Transformations and Cultural Accuracy in {AI}-Generated Image Reconstructions for Multivocal Cultural Heritage",
    author = "Wimalasuriya, Ravini  and
      Krause, Lea  and
      Burgers, Gert-Jan",
    editor = {Hamilton, Sil  and
      {\"O}hman, Emily  and
      Hicke, Rebecca M. M.  and
      Bizzoni, Yuri  and
      Bax, Axel  and
      Matthews, Jacob A.  and
      H{\"a}m{\"a}l{\"a}inen, Mika},
    booktitle = "Proceedings of the 6th International Conference on Natural Language Processing for the Digital Humanities",
    month = jul,
    year = "2026",
    address = "San Diego, USA",
    publisher = "Association for Computational Linguistics",
    url = "https://preview.aclanthology.org/ingest-acl-workshops/2026.nlp4dh-1.9/",
    pages = "83--95",
    ISBN = "979-8-89176-427-9",
    abstract = "This research explores the intersection of cultural heritage and Generative AI (Gen-AI), examining AI-generated historical image reconstructions as a potential tool for visualising multiple perspectives in heritage interpretation. In critical heritage studies, the concept of multivocality or polyvocality advocates for representing diverse, often underrepresented, perspectives in how heritage is understood and communicated. We evaluated three prominent AI image generation models across three heritage test cases. A total of 13 user prompts generated 39 images, which underwent both linguistic analysis of intermediate prompt transformations and systematic visual assessment by heritage experts for historical accuracy and cultural sensitivity. The findings revealed both strengths and limitations of the models. While the models produced visually compelling outputs and, in some cases, meaningfully distinct depictions across perspectives, they also exhibited representation imbalances, neutralisation and amplification tendencies, inconsistencies in human portrayal, and misinterpretations introduced during the linguistic transformation of user inputs. Based on these findings, we propose initial guidelines for structured prompt construction that target the specific failure patterns identified. The research suggests that generative AI could serve as a supplementary tool, not a definitive historical source, for exploring multivocal heritage interpretation, particularly in museum and visitor engagement contexts, provided it is used critically and in conjunction with expert input."
}