Programme D
Education and the Next Generation
Heritage, the Arabic language and trustworthy AI need people who understand all three. This programme opens the Initiative's rules, methods and materials to those who teach, study and research.
Planned Work on this programme is planned to begin in 2027.
Aim
The Initiative's work rests on a small number of clear rules: quote verbatim, name the source, reject rather than guess, and leave collections with those who keep them.
This programme passes these rules, and the methods behind them, to the next generation of scholars, heritage specialists and developers, and to those who teach them, so that they can apply them in their own work, independently of the Initiative. Knowledge that stays with a single organisation cannot be checked by anyone else, and heritage that no one learns to study does not stay alive.
What is shared
The Charter
The Ethics Charter for AI and Arabic and Islamic Heritage is published as a draft for public comment before a first version is adopted.
Method notes
Short, dated notes on how a method works and where its limits lie. Each is reviewed by an external specialist in philology before it is published.
Open materials
Teaching materials for universities, schools and libraries on the responsible use of AI with heritage, released under an open licence (CC BY 4.0).
Formats for young researchers
Open workshops and supervised projects for students and early-career researchers in heritage studies, Arabic linguistics, philology and computer science.
For whom
- Universities and libraries, beginning in Germany, Austria and Switzerland.
- Students and early-career researchers in heritage studies, Arabic linguistics, philology and computer science.
- Schools and teachers who want to bring heritage and a critical use of AI into the classroom.
- Anyone who teaches or catalogues heritage in Arabic script and works with AI tools.
The materials are open to everyone; these groups simply mark where the work begins.
First verifiable output
The draft Charter with a public comment period, and two method notes.
Comments on the Charter follow a published moderation rule. Contributions must stay factual; religious controversies and personal attacks are not published; and a comment appears only with its author's consent, with or without their name, as they prefer. Every comment receives a reply within ten working days.
Open The external specialist in philology who will review the method notes has not yet been named.
How progress is measured
- The number of institutions that comment on the Charter.
- The number of participants in open formats.
Values will be published only once the programme has begun, each with its date and source.
What this programme does not do
- We do not offer paid training or consulting under the Initiative's name; paid work of this kind takes place outside the Initiative.
- We give no religious instruction and take no position on religious or political questions of the day.
- We do not publish a method note before an external specialist in philology has reviewed it.
- We do not present the Charter as final while it is open for comment.