AI Cracks 500-Year-Old Anne Boleyn Mystery

0:00On May 2nd, a team from the University of Bradford thinks they've cracked a 500-year mystery using AI facial recognition on old tutors, sketches. They believe an unidentified drawing is actually Ann Bolin, King Henry VIII's second wife, who got beheaded on charges of adultery, incest, and treason. No confirmed portraits of her survived, but this text spotted strong family resemblances. They ran the analysis on portraits by artist Hans Holbein the Younger, comparing the mystery face to confirmed images of Bolin's daughter, Queen, Elizabeth I, and her cousins. The faces clustered together based on shared features, unlike sketches of unrelated people. Led researcher Karen Davies, who funded her history passion by cleaning houses, caused it a total shock. Bolin's short time as Queen met no standard images were made, and many got destroyed after her execution. Even Holbein's sketch labeled with her name faces doubts, though some swear it's legit.

1:00The Royal Collection Trust, which holds these works, didn't join the study and won't back the claim. Experts are split. Art historians like Dr. Bendoor Grovener slam it as flawed science questioning centuries of research, calling it a load of rubbish that somehow passed. Peer review. A National Portrait Gallery curator points out there's no reliable reference portrait from her lifetime. This could spark new ways to build visual family trees for historical figures, but the debate rages on. Testing old evidence with fresh tools keeps history alive and kicking.