The digital "super-expert" putting gemstones under the microscope

For the average joe, it is easy to be overwhelmed by precious stones’ dazzling colors and sparkling appearances. But this is not the case for experts based at Gübelin’s Gem Lab in Lucerne, who are connoisseurs in distinguishing and understanding these precious minerals. Indeed, Gübelin’s gem lab is regarded as the international gold standard for checking the identity, authenticity, and origin of high-value, colored gemstones like emeralds, sapphires, and rubies.

Gemstones are sent from all over the world to Gübelin's different locations – Lucerne, Hong Kong, and New York – for authenticity certification. "An essential aspect of our work is in guaranteeing consistency in our results," explains Dr. Daniel Nyfeler, Managing Director of the gemological laboratory. “This means that every time Gübelin’s experts put a particular gemstone under the microscope, they must make the same assessment. Deviations in the procedure should only arise if the stone has been altered in the intervening period,” he stresses.

So, how was this super-expert developed? “The foundation of any artificial intelligence is annotated data,” explains Schmid. The project team, made up of employees from CSEM and Gübelin, were able to tap into a veritable treasure trove of data for this project: The data register contained the comprehensive analyses of tens of thousands of customer gemstones, amassed by Gübelin's gemological laboratory since the 1970s. This data was enriched with findings from Gübelin's unique collection of reference stones, which comprises more than 28,000 gemstones from every commercial mine worldwide. “This means our application can combine optical spectral analyses with chemical properties and undertake large artificial intelligence extractions,” explains Schmid. As a result, a gemstone’s origin can be precisely determined, and the system can also detect if a gemstone has undergone any heat treatment. Both these factors have a strong bearing on the value of a stone.

"Gemtelligence," has received government funding from Innosuisse, with the technology representing an innovation with huge potential for application in multiple domains. Similar approaches could advance medical diagnostic techniques and make industry products safer thanks to 100% quality control. The project even offered up some exciting discoveries for the researchers from CSEM: “It clearly demonstrates that it's not enough to simply combine unfiltered datasets with AI,” notes Philipp Schmid. Only when the data is enhanced with important additional information, such as the experience of human experts, can the "ground truth" be digitally mapped and utilized. “Everything else is, and sadly always will be, essentially junk data,” Schmid concludes.