Ghost of Rembrandt: AI taught to paint like master Dutch artist (VIDEO)

A combined project by Microsoft, the Rembrandt House Museum, advertising firm J Walter Thompson Amsterdam, and strangely, ING Bank has yielded a 148 million pixel portrait generated by a computer. Developers of The Next Rembrandt say a series of complex algorithms were used to extract the key features of Rembrandt's work. Given the companies involved, the project smacks of an advertising stunt, but the resulting printed image does raise interesting questions about the quality of future forgeries. Under the project, all 346 Rembrandt paintings were analyzed using 3D scans to pinpoint common techniques and themes used by the 17th century artist. READ MORE: Lawnmower explodes during crazy backyard'art' experiment (VIDEO) "The first step was to study the works of Rembrandt in order to create an extensive database," explains Emmanuel Flores, director of technology at J Walter Thompson Amsterdam.