Can AI detect forged art? | Carina Popovici | TEDxNuremberg
Introduction
The speaker introduces a painting and discusses the process of authenticating works of art.
Authenticating Works of Art
- Authentication is slow, expensive, and subjective.
- Experts require seeing the original artwork for authentication.
- Different experts can have contradictory opinions.
Using AI to Authenticate Art
The speaker discusses how artificial intelligence (AI) can be used to authenticate works of art.
Training AI to Recognize an Artist's Style
- AI can learn an artist's unique style by analyzing photographs of their authentic works of art.
- Ideally, at least 200 images are needed to create a reliable data set.
- The AI learns not only brush strokes but also other elements such as color use and composition.
Comparing Features for Authentication
- Once training is completed, the AI can compare features learned during training with those identified on new works of art.
- Based on this comparison, the AI returns a probability for the new artwork.
Advantages of AI in Art Authentication
This section discusses the advantages of using AI for art authentication.
Benefits of AI in Art Authentication
- AI is fully unbiased and has no emotions, making it less subjective than human experts.
- The training process can take several days, but checking whether a new art piece is by the same artist is just a matter of minutes.
- After waiting for around three to four days, you will receive an answer to your AI authentication query.
Authenticating Art with AI
This section explains how to authenticate art using AI.
Submitting an Image for Authentication
- To submit an image for authentication, the program needs about three days to learn the main characteristics from around 700 training images.
- Once the program has learned these characteristics, it takes less than five minutes to calculate the probability for the authenticity of a new art piece.
Results and Heat Map Visualization
- The program evaluated the painting as authentic with a 97% probability score.
- A heat map is used to visualize results on the painting itself. Regions highlighted in bright red have been identified during training as characteristic for the style of the artist, confirming authenticity.
Conclusion
This section concludes that technology offers huge possibilities and every museum can now verify their collections in a fast, affordable and objective manner.
Preserving Cultural Heritage
- Every curator can find out immediately if works they are bidding on are real or not. This will help preserve our cultural heritage.