Style transfer

Style transfer is a funny neural network application that provides many insights into the power of neural networks. So what exactly is it? Imagine that you observe a painting done by a famous artist. In principle, you are observing two elements: the painting itself (say the face of a woman, or a landscape) and something more intrinsic, the “style” of the artist. What is the style? That is more difficult to define, but humans know that Picasso had his own style, Matisse had his own style, and each artist has his/her own style. Now, imagine taking a famous painting of Matisse, giving it to a neural network, and letting the neural network repaint it in Picasso’s style. Or, imagine taking your own photo, giving it to a neural network, and having your photo painted in Matisse’s or Picasso’s style, or in the style of any other artist that you like. That’s what style transfer does.

For instance, go to https://deepart.io/ and see...