Archaeologists tap AI to decipher ancient scrolls lost to volcanoes.

2,000 years ago, a catastrophic eruption of the famous Mount Vesuvius destroyed countless ancient artifacts. However, more than 1,800 papyrus scrolls survived an 18th-century fire in the village of Herculaneum in Campania, Italy.

Archaeologists believe the scrolls contain stories and information that have been lost forever, and scientists have been unable to open the scrolls, trying to find the way they got there. Previous attempts have caused the scrolls to disintegrate, or cause the text to disappear immediately when exposed to the elements. Therefore, TIt was born the Vesuvius Challenge – a competition to find the ancient scrolls.

The winners of this year's 2023 competition are a team of researchers who have used artificial intelligence, non-destructive CT scanning and other unique techniques. The team estimated that they were able to scan and interpret 5 percent of a scroll.

“Ten months ago, we launched the Vesuvius Challenge in 79 AD,” said Nat Friedman, founder of the Vesuvius Challenge. “Today we are delighted to announce the success of our crazy project. After 2,000 years we can finally read the scrolls.

Because of their densely carbonized state, the clusters posed a serious challenge to scientists. Revealing their content requires a combination of expertise in CT scan technology, computer vision, and machine learning, inspired by Friedman, Daniel Gross, and Brent Seals. Gross is a technology investor who previously served as a partner at Y-Combinator and leads Apple's artificial intelligence efforts, while Mahatm is the Kentucky Chair of Science and Professor of Data Science.

The winning team, led by Luke Faritor, a 21-year-old University of Nebraska-Lincoln student and SpaceX intern, developed a machine learning algorithm that could detect subtle differences in text on sealed scrolls—a task that had previously eluded experts. . Faritor's neural network carefully distinguished between the colored and blank areas of the papyrus, bringing to light more than a dozen Greek characters, including “Porphyras.”

This Success At the Vesuvius Challenge tournament, Farittor won the “Initial Letters” prize, setting the stage for further understanding of the scrolls.

Two other scholars shared the prize with Faritor: Yusuf Nader, a PhD student, and Julian Schillinger, who developed a segmentation method for mapping the papyrus.

Collectively, they used three different model architectures to leverage AI, while also avoiding the common problem of “overfitting,” using the same input over and over again and using illusion. Their rigorous approach allowed scholars to access ideas and wisdom preserved for two millennia.

The trio earned $700,000 for their success.

The scroll, now partially untied, is a glimpse of ancient philosophical discourse, particularly reflecting Epicurus's claim that pleasure is supreme. The scroll elaborates on the complex relationship between the availability of objects such as food and the pleasure they provide. An ancient author rejects the idea that scarcity increases happiness. as if Excerpted From the article, the author says, “Even in food, we don't immediately believe things that are ever more interesting than what is available in abundance.”

Pure Greek philosophy brought back two thousand years through the power of AI.

The entire operation was also open-ended, so the work of Nader, Faritor and Schillinger in the Vesuvius challenge may herald a new era in the preservation and interpretation of ancient texts.

What's next? Scan and solve up to 90% of the scrolls – and whoever does it wins $100,000.

Edited by Ryan Ozawa.