AI, machine learning, and computer vision are transforming research in fields ranging from health and biology to Earth and space sciences.
Traditional art academics have been hesitant to embrace computer analysis, criticising it as too narrow and unsophisticated for decades.
Algorithms are rapidly improving, and dozens of studies are already demonstrating the capacity of AI to throw new light on fine-art paintings and drawings.
AI-driven technologies, for example, are demonstrating how painters' grasp of optics has allowed them to express light and perspective by examining brush strokes, colour, and style.
Programmes are resurrecting the look of lost or concealed artworks and even computing the meanings of some paintings, for example, by detecting symbols.