Microsoft has announced a collaboration with Italian communication research center Fabrica. The company is the Tate's IK Prize winner for 2016 and Microsoft will supply an AI for new installation at Tate. Called Recognition, the search engine will search images from Tate's collection.
There are more than 30,000 images to search through. For each image the Recognition AI will search the collection for related photos, which have been supplied by Reuters. These accompanying photos match current event related to the original search image.
Recognition is Fabrica's creation working with Microsoft's Cognitive Services AI. The software is used to recognize themes, context, expressions, and style similarities across images. Tate's collection is extensive and covers both modern and historical, the AI can find themes across them.
Deep Analysis
Microsoft points out that the AI is capable of explaining the reasons why it has matched images. This includes explaining colors, objects, or various themes in the images. It is an extension of the HowOldAml.net. The creators say the technology is a publically viewable showcase for Microsoft's AI potential.
“From a Microsoft perspective AI is the future – we're betting the company on this technology that extends the reach of humanity,” said Dave Coplin, chief envisaging officer at the tech brand. “There is this narrative that it's all about the cold world of computers, while we live in a world of warm emotion.”
Coplin concludes that the company will continue to search for other similar implementations of its AI. “We want to be driving the conversation of ‘humans plus machines' rather than ‘humans versus machines'.
