Will the Next Cut be Human or AI?

AI can do pretty much anything these days. But there are some areas where humans still excel . . . such as inventing a new diamond cut.

Jacob & Co, watchmaker of choice for the uber-wealthy, has just introduced the Angel Cut, with 37 facets, a distinctive stepped rectangular outline, and a lozenge-shaped table with cut corners.

The company describes it as "a major milestone" in its history, offering extra versatility, luminosity and luxury.

"It took two full years of refinement to bring the Angel Cut to life," said Jacob Arabo, founder and chairman of Jacob & Co, who dedicated the new cut to his wife Angela.

"We were not interested in creating another variation on an existing theme. It had to be a true invention—something more versatile, more radiant, and more refined."

It was human endeavor, not AI, that created the diamonds that grace Jacob & Co's new $3.4 million Billionaire Double Tourbillon Angel Cut watch.

Pic courtesy Jacob & Co of new Angel Cut. 

Yes, AI is transforming the diamond trade â€” using 3D scans of rough stones to test millions of potential cuts in moments.

But it's not great at creative "thought". You can train AI on vast datasets of existing cuts. It can optimize, it can tweak proportions to maximize brilliance or yield.

But invention demands leaping into uncharted territory. AI needs data, it can re-tread a well-worn path and do it better than we can.

But it can't - so far - come up with something that is truly original and truly brilliant.

The Angel Cut is more niche than gamechanger. In the grand scheme of things it's a novelty, but it's still a man-made novelty rather than an AI novelty.

Even for humans, truly game-changing diamond cuts are once-in-a-generation events

The Princess Cut endures as the most recent true market disruptor, co-invented in 1979 by Tel Aviv diamond cutters Israel "Izzy" Itzkowitz, Betzalel Ambar, and Ygal Perlman.

It was patented in 1980, a square modified brilliant with 50-58 facets and a pavilion-dominant structure, delivering round brilliant-like sparkle.

At its peak, it commanded over 25% of engagement ring sales, although that figure has since declined steeply.

The Princess came just a couple of years after the Radiant (William Goldberg, New York, 1977) but prior to that you really have to go back to the iconic Asscher cut (Joseph Asscher, Netherlands, 1902) to find any real innovation.

That's not to say that cutters haven't been busy experimenting. Tiffany & Co invested decades of research in their 50-facet Lucida, which debuted in 1999.

Jacob & Co introduced the Jacob Cut - 288 facets for extravagant sparkle in 2014 and Singapore-based Jannpaul launched the Shield 2.0 Trilliant in 2022.

But these were high-end tweaks for elite clientele, rather than changes with impact across the whole diamond market.

The last 124 years have given us just three new cuts of real significance - Asscher, Radiant and Princess.

Will the next one be thanks to human genius? Or will AI develop at such a rate that it can out-think us?

I asked AI. Likelihood of humans developing a gamechanging new cut?

"10-20% in Next Decade," it said.

Humans excel at "leaps" via intuition/serendipity, it said, but are held back by "high costs, risk (rough waste), and market inertia (round dominance)."

Same question for AI.

"5-15% Near-Term, Rising to 30% Long-Term"

AI admits it currently falters with creative thought, but says everything could change when quantum computers come online.

Ask a classical computer to try out a million different options and it will do so, one by one.

Quantum computers will be able to try them all at the same moment. A task that would take a classical computer a billion years could be done in a matter of minutes using quantum technology.

We humans, with our life experience and creative genius, still hold the upper hand when it comes to diamond cuts. But maybe not for long.