They can, but neural architectures range in granularity from basic autoencoders with softmax which can be equivalent to a hash function, to convolutional netwo

They can, but neural architectures range in granularity from basic autoencoders with softmax which can be equivalent to a hash function, to convolutional networks which explicitly encode fine detail. Neural networks are a great tool that when used well can operate with explicit functions like phash- they don't have to be a black box mystery. Pick the right architecture and tolerance and you might eliminate a lot of development, maintenance, and troubleshooting.