AI widens access to immersive heritage, scholar says

At the 2026 Beijing Culture Forum, David Francis, a scholar from University College London, reflected on how AI is changing the way people experience cultural heritage. He described visiting the Capital Museum in Beijing the day before, where behind the cultural relics "you have these big vistas recreating Beijing, recreating the palace, recreating the Beijing Central Axis, and giving people a kind of immersive flavor". He also pointed to highlights such as an immersive presentation of Riverside Scene at Qingming Festival, in which visitors are transported back in time and into the painting itself.

For Francis, what AI enables is the capacity to create these immersive experiences and recreate the past. Rather than remaining "the preserve of people with lots of money or the museums themselves", this power, he said, is now becoming more widely available.