An authentication system authenticates an object. The authentication system includes a capture device for capturing at least one biometric output data record (BD) for the object; a reading device for reading configuration data (Konf), associated with the object, for an artificial neural network; a processing device designed to produce the artificial neural network and to input the BD into the neural network; a verification device which captures an output from the neural network to authenticate the object, wherein the neural network is a bidirectional associative memory, particularly a Hopfield network, having a multiplicity of network states. The verification device is designed to determine the output from the neural network by capturing a final state derived from the input of the BD. The neural network stores a key associated with a particular person. The key is released only when appropriate biometric data are input into the neural network.