Researchers develop AI to find previously undiscovered rock art

Researchers have developed a process using Machine Learning (ML) methods to find rock art in remote, hard-to-access areas of Australia. The study, co-led by Dr. Andrea Jalandoni, a digital archaeologist from Griffith University's Center for Social and Cultural Research, was published in the Aug. 2022 issue of the Journal of Archaeological Science. In the study, university researchers trained a ML model to detect whether painted rock art was present in an image by feeding it hundreds of images of rock art found in Kakadu National Park. The model achieved an impressive 89% success rate. Dr. Jalandoni told the Australian Associated Press, "Our machine learning model picks up whether an area photographed potentially contains previously undiscovered rock art, scientists can then go in and verify if there is rock art present and do more research."