Jason Antic

1/ I've been asked quite a bit about why updated video colorization hasn't come out yet. So the short answer is this: A cool tech demo is one thing (videos I've posted on YouTube), but production quality is another beast entirely.

2/ The original DeOldify V1 took 6 weeks to develop (just images), released in November 2018. Cherry picked results were cool, but your average result was quite glitchy and unreliable. Making something that attracted a buyer took 13 months on top of that! Think about that.

3/ Here's the rub too: I really don't think adding more people would help speed this along much. In my mind, this is one of those things that is analogous to "it takes 9 months to make a baby no matter what."

4/ I've believed from the beginning of this project that the real "pay dirt" in deep learning that is still under explored is the discipline of sticking with the problems beyond scoring high on benchmarks and getting impressive cherry picked results.

5/ That is to say, making something real out of the models that can be reliably used by everyday users. This certainly has happened (style transfer and super-resolution are good examples), but not nearly as much has been done in this area as there is potential I think.

6/ Big reason I think is that, no matter your resources, it's a painfully difficult process and it takes a lot of time. Believe me, it's been so very tempting to give up. So video- it'll happen when it's ready. It'll take time. That's pretty much it.

Hey Jason, have you noticed that colorized clear sky is rarely as blue as in reality?