this post was submitted on 14 Oct 2023
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146
AI reads text from ancient Herculaneum scroll for the first time (www.nature.com)
submitted 2 years ago by Bebo@literature.cafe to c/technology@lemmy.world
12 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

A student, as part of a contest, used a machine-learning algorithm and CT scans to analyse on closed scrolls, buried by Mount Vesuvius in October AD 79. The breakthrough could unlock the contents of hundreds of never-before-seen writings.

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[–] Miclux 44 points 2 years ago

"Epstein didn't kill himself"

[–] ChaoticEntropy@feddit.uk 22 points 2 years ago (2 children)

Sooo... how can they verify that it is reading it correctly...?

[–] LadyAutumn@lemmy.blahaj.zone 23 points 2 years ago (2 children)

We can see how it makes the translation and verify that it's making accurate judgements based on the data it's being fed. We can check the AI against controls too, other scrolls that we know what they say already and feed it data on them until it gets very accurate on those ones. Then apply that model to these unknown scrolls.

[–] hedgehog@ttrpg.network 14 points 2 years ago

Note that the AI discussed in the article wasn’t translating anything. It was determining what was written in the original language by using scans of sections of the scroll, taking into account patterns (the “crackle”), differences in texture, etc., that hadn’t been leveraged in this way before.

Otherwise you’re spot on - it was trained on other similar scans that exhibited those patterns where the written text was already known.

[–] ChaoticEntropy@feddit.uk 2 points 2 years ago

Thanks to you and the next person for the extra detail.

[–] Jimmycakes@lemmy.world 7 points 2 years ago

We already know the language that's not what they are saying, this is reading the inside the rolled up scroll that's too fragile to unroll so we don't know what was in there