✍️ AI learned to mimic handwriting

Guess which image is the actual human handwriting and which is AI-generated?

Answer: on the left is human handwriting, and on the right is the result of neural networks.

The machine learning model developed by researchers from the Mohamed bin Zayed University of Artificial Intelligence in Abu Dhabi convincingly mimics human handwriting. For training, the model needs just a few paragraphs of original handwriting.

The UAE developers used a transformer neural network designed for computer vision tasks. It analyzes both the general context and structure of the text as well as the unique details of specific characters and the connecting lines that bind the characters together.

This AI technology can already reproduce handwritten texts in English and French. The next step is teaching it to mimic Arabic writing.

To check how the AI had coped with the task, the researchers asked 100 volunteers to examine the original manuscript and copies generated by three different models. More than 80% of the respondents chose the version generated by the transformer network. More importantly, they couldn't distinguish between the AI-simulated handwriting and the actual one.

💪 What’s the potential of this AI tool?

⚪️The new technology will make it possible to decipher hard-to-recognize texts — for example, doctors’ handwriting and ancient manuscripts.

⚪️The inventors recently received a patent from the US Patent and Trademark Office for the tool, which could help people with injuries to write without taking up a pen.

⚠️ AI's ability to accurately reproduce handwriting can be used by fraudsters, for example, to forge document signatures. Therefore, the researchers are now developing an AI model that will be able to distinguish AI-mimicked handwriting from the actual one in real-time.

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