Not a stupid question at all! Not exactly the same approach, but there&#x27;s been some recent interesting research on neural net and ML driven global illumination:<p>[0] <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.jiapingwang.com&#x2F;files&#x2F;shadebot_sig13.pdf" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.jiapingwang.com&#x2F;files&#x2F;shadebot_sig13.pdf</a><p>[1] <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;cgg.mff.cuni.cz&#x2F;~jirka&#x2F;papers&#x2F;2014&#x2F;olpm&#x2F;On-lineLearningPPMinLTS.pdf" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;cgg.mff.cuni.cz&#x2F;~jirka&#x2F;papers&#x2F;2014&#x2F;olpm&#x2F;On-lineLearni...</a>