Thanks to artificial intelligence, natural diamonds may receive consistent grading
Ray and Forever, headquartered in New York, first began training artificial intelligence to grade diamonds in 2018, in order to make their diamond grading more unified and accurate. Now, with increasing competition from online and nurturing diamond retailers, the company offers this service to natural diamond retailers.
In the entire diamond industry, grading is mainly done manually, and graders grade diamonds by examining factors such as color, clarity, cutting, and carat weight through a microscope. Retailers typically use the Gem Institute of the United States (GIA) to evaluate and certify the quality of diamonds.
Since the emergence of nurturing diamonds in the 1980s, natural diamond brands have been striving to differentiate their products. According to diamond retailer Queensmith, the selling price of natural diamonds is usually 60-80% higher than that of cultivated diamonds; Their quality and origin determine their value.
But the lack of accurate and consistent diamond grading has harmed the industry. According to a report by Research and Market, the global diamond cultivation market will be worth US $22.45 billion in 2022. By 2028, the market value is expected to grow to US $37.32 billion. According to the report of research company market.us, the global diamond market value will increase from 98.3 billion dollars in 2023 to about 140.1 billion dollars by 2032.
There are errors in manual grading, "said Sam Indeligato, the jewelry director of the 2-year-old diamond brand Rare&Forever. Not always consistent; having opinions and biases
The former diamond wholesaler Indeligato stated that it is well known that graders will elevate the grade of diamonds in order to sell them at higher prices. During the grading process, cultivated diamonds were still mistakenly classified as natural diamonds until 2021. The Gem Institute of America (GIA) has also been accused of accepting bribes to improve diamond ratings. The Federal Trade Commission of the United States has established multiple diamond grading regulations, with a focus on providing accurate information to avoid misleading customers.
The classification of natural diamonds may be vague and complex for customers, and although the grading system remains unchanged, the same diamond can be assigned different levels in different evaluations.
With the help of artificial intelligence, Rare and Forever are expected to provide solutions for the grading process. To train artificial intelligence, it uses large language models to compare thousands of diamonds and categorize them based on four Cs and other categories (including milky white). Indeligato states that due to the dependence of artificial intelligence on the dataset it trains, its likelihood of bias is lower than that of manually analyzed scores.
Artificial intelligence does not encounter bad days. It does not eat or drink coffee. It is not affected by vision or biased. Ultimately, it creates accuracy and consistency. Indeligato declined to disclose investments in training artificial intelligence scores by Rare and Forever.
Rare and Forever are collaborating with physical jewelry retailers such as Biondi Jewelers in Colorado to conduct artificial intelligence ratings on their diamonds. As diamonds are graded more accurately, their pricing will also become more accurate, Indeligato added, "Compared to online diamond sellers, our retailers now have some unique things
Considering the unreliability of this type of information, the demand for such information among consumers is currently very low. Davis Biondi, co owner of Biondi Jewelers, said that customers usually carry a list of things they are looking for when purchasing diamonds, but they are usually not interested in the data of the diamonds themselves. Usually, clients are engineers or highly mathematical minded individuals who are concerned about grading
Olivia Landau, founder and CEO of the diamond brand The Clear Cut, stated that human factors in diamond grading remain important. Integrating artificial intelligence into natural diamond grading may improve accuracy and consistency, and AI enhanced grading systems can quickly and efficiently grade large quantities of diamonds. Sometimes the waiting time in large laboratories can be long, making it particularly useful for those who need to process large quantities of diamonds on a regular basis
However, she added, "It is important to consider the potential impact on the livelihoods of human diamond graders. Diamonds are very complex, and without someone with rich diamond knowledge and experience to help draft these datasets, artificial intelligence assisted grading may be very inaccurate
Similarly, artificial intelligence validation is currently being tested in luxury categories such as handbags, but its accuracy still needs to be discussed.
Technology has become an indispensable part of the high-end jewelry industry. De Beers successfully tracked 100 of its diamonds using blockchain in 2020 and plans to integrate this technology into all of its varieties. Rare and Forever also use blockchain to track their diamonds.
Artificial intelligence can also be used for brand traceability work. At present, the origin of diamonds can be traced by analyzing the molecular structure of diamonds, but this process is time-consuming. AI will speed up the comparison of similar molecular structures. This information is becoming increasingly important for sellers of natural diamonds, as customers are increasingly concerned about social and environmental sustainability, as well as where the products they purchase come from.