Forget DeepFakes. This robo-Rembrandt with AI for brains is not bad at knocking off paintings

AI-powered robo-painters are getting somewhat better at ripping off masterpieces, judging by the following fresh research. A team of academics at MIT's Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) and Princeton University in America, and Chulalongkorn University in Thailand, have crafted a new system dubbed RePrint. It's split into two parts: a 3D printer that outputs layers of resin ink, and a trained neural network. When shown a photo of an oil painting, the system identifies the overall layout of the image, adjusts the lighting to compensate for whatever conditions the input picture was taken, and then predicts which colours are the right ones to mix and how to apply them to recreate the work using the printer. The key thing here is to mechanically produce a painting based on a digital snap, mixing and daubing the inks as necessary, imperfections and all.