shutterstock has developed a number of tools utilizing a "convolutional neural network" that it created to help with reverse image search technology. the network is "essentially a computer system that is trained to recognize images – there are millions of specific items such as cats, bicycles, the night sky – and pull up the most relevant photos." it "breaks down the key components of a photo numerically, drawing from its pixel data instead of metadata that is pulled from those tags and keywords."