We Look Forward to Welcoming You to Fantastic Futures 2026!

[nina.b...@nb.no]

Dear AI4LAM community, 

📢 Today is D-Day: Fantastic Futures 2026 conference begins in just a few hours!

We hope you have successfully completed your registration, and we look forward to welcoming you soon, either in Washington or online. As previously communicated, all essential information for presenters and participants is available on our conference website. 

We have also sent a bulk email to all registered participants. If you have not received it, please check your spam or junk folder. Should you still be unable to locate it, please contact us at ff2...@ai4lam.org. 

If you have not yet had the opportunity to explore the conference programme, we encourage you to visit our website to learn more about the distinguished speakers participating in the Strategic Forum (the Members' Day programme) and our keynote speakers. Discover also the affiliated events of the FF2026 conference - some of them are already fully booked, so be sure to check the programme and register soon for those that still have places available.

📢 Sharing with Our Community

We would also like to highlight a new article exploring how provenance metadata can make AI-generated content more transparent and traceable: Provenance Metadata for Slop Control, with Transcripts and other Digital Objects. 

One practical step in this direction is the Transcript Provenance Metadata Elements (TPME) framework, developed and refined over the past two years by the AI4LAM Speech-to-Text Working Group. TPME provides a framework for documenting the AI processes behind transcript creation, helping libraries, archives, and museums better understand and assess their digital derivatives.

🙌 A big thanks to all our colleagues - Owen King, Nina Rao, Javier de la Rosa, Michael Andrec, Charles Hosale, Mark Boas - and to the entire AI4LAM Speech-to-Text Working Group for your active participation, thoughtful contributions, and for helping build and strengthen our community. 🙌

In addition, we warmly encourage everyone to share their work with the broader community. If you have a project, initiative, publication, article, event, or other news that may be of interest, please do not hesitate to contact us. We would be delighted to help disseminate it across the AI4LAM network.

📢 AI4LAM Working Groups

We would also like to encourage you to explore and engage with AI4LAM Working Groups. Some of these groups are already well established and highly active, while others are currently being formed. Following FF2026 conference, we plan to devote additional attention to supporting our Working Groups and their ongoing development, ensuring they have the resources and community engagement needed to thrive. We encourage you to take a look at all of our Working Groups and, if you have not yet joined one, we are confident you will find a topic that matches your interests and expertise.

And remember our motto:

“Individually we are slow and isolated; collectively, we can go faster and farther.”

Thank you for being part of Fantastic Futures 2026. We look forward to seeing you at the FF2026 conference! For those who were unable to join us this year, we sincerely hope you will be able to participate in next year's conference. We look forward to welcoming even more members of our community, and we will be announcing the location of the next Fantastic Futures conference soon. Stay tuned!

Your AI4LAM Team