AI unlocks ancient text owned by Caesar's family

[butterscotch]

3 students, using AI, were able to decipher some text on a 2,000 year old scroll that had baffled scientists for centuries.

The scrolls were badly burnt so the text was near impossible to read on the scrolls because the scrolls would fall apart at the touch.

The students used pattern recognition, using AI to decipher the text. They won a $700K prize for their achievement.

Three students have won a $700,000 prize after using AI to read a 2,000-year-old scroll burnt during the Mount Vesuvius eruption in 79AD.

The ancient text was unreadable until now after being charred in the Roman town of Herculaneum during the same eruption that destroyed Pompeii.

It is thought to have belonged to Julius Caesar’s father-in-law and talks of music and food.

Experts have called the breakthrough a “revolution” in Greek philosophy.

Youssef Nader, a PhD student in Berlin, Luke Farritor, a SpaceX intern and student, and Julian Schillinger, a Swiss Robotics student, built an AI model that was able to work out the lettering through using pattern recognition.

Dr Federica said: “This is the start of a revolution in Greek philosophy in general.”

The model has so far deciphered 2,000 Greek characters written in one of the four scrolls scanned by Dr Seales’ team - which is only 5% of the text.

Now translated the characters reveal the author discussing the sources of pleasure in life, referencing music and food.

AI unlocks ancient text owned by Caesar's family

[Omah]

From this:

To this:

Amazing …