Sotheby's moves into AI

January 25 2018

Video: Thread Genius

Sotheby's has bought an image recognition software company, called Thread Genius. The video above shows that the software allows you to search by images and parts of images. The press coverage about the acquisition focuses on how this will help clients, but I suspect at least as useful will be its connoisseurial abilities. Even a reverse Google Image search these days can be scarily effective. The days of Christie's and Sotheby's sending a junior specialist to delve through the Witt Library or the Frick archive, will soon be over.

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