AI to help churches and castles fight wave of graffiti and vandalism

The systems can learn the artists' style, choice of colours and where they buy their paint

Artificial intelligence could become a crucial weapon to deter graffiti vandals from defacing churches, castles and monasteries, after historic sites experienced a dramatic increase in such attacks over the past year.

Historic England is pursuing a pioneering project that could see AI identify culprits from their tags, track their movements by matching graffiti in different areas, and analyse paints to establish where they obtained their spray cans.