The Computer As Art Historian?

Researchers have taught computers how to “read” paintings and identify them. “A picture, after all, is more than a thousand words. It can be represented as bits of data, just like a bank account or music on a compact disc, and the researchers have sifted this information through the dispassionate filter of statistics. The authors… are quick to say that they don’t want to replace art historians. Their methods aren’t sophisticated enough to do so even if they wanted to.”