Toward a culturally situated perspective: Rethinking the role of AI in intangible cultural heritage pattern creation

Research on generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) in cultural design has primarily focused on generative control and creative efficiency, often overlooking the misalignment between AI task definition and cultural creation. This study explores how GenAI can be culturally adapted within traditional pattern-making practices. Using an ethnographically informed generative probe, field experiments were conducted in the Huayao cross- stitch community, which practices a form of Chinese intangible cultural heritage. The findings reveal how cultural practitioners negotiate creative logic and cultural judgment when collaborating with AI, identifying four key orientations: liveliness, locality, creation-in-progress, and community creativity. Building on these insights, the paper redefines AI’s role as a generative reflexive actor and introduces the perspective of Culturally Situated Task Definition (CSTD) to explain how cultural tasks are redefined through the mutual shaping of technology and practice, advancing an understanding of the mechanisms underlying AI’s cultural adaptation and meaning co-construction.