Illustration by Emily Lankiewicz / Images via Vesuvius Challenge and public domain

Technology The World10. October 2024

Could A.I. Help Solve an Archaeological Mystery?

A machine-learning and computer vision competition was launched in 2023 to decipher unreadable ancient scrolls using artificial intelligence. So far, $1 million in prizes have been awarded.

The Vesuvius Challenge aims at breaking through the Herculaneum scrolls, a collection of carbonized papyrus scrolls from around 2,000 years ago that were buried by the eruption of the Vesuvius volcano in 79 A.D.

First discovered in the 18th century, the scrolls were spared since they were kept in an underground library. But it is impossible to unwrap them without destroying them. The idea was to develop software that could scan the not flat three-dimensional surface and then flatten it out to read all the writing. The next step was to train the machine-learning algorithm to tell the difference between ink and what isn’t. The Silicon Valley-based entrepreneur and former CEO of GitHub Nat Friedman decided to fund the competition where all data is open source, and goals are set for people who can make different advances toward reading the scrolls. Progress prizes are awarded – for example, the first person who detects ink, the first person who detects a word, the first person who reads a whole passage – and every time a person wins a progress prize, all of their work, data, and algorithms are made public. The Vesuvius Grand Prize of $700,000 was awarded to three students who read more than 2,000 characters from this scroll – more than 5% of the entire scrolls – of the works of the ancient Greek philosopher Philodemus, a follower of Epicurus who founded the Epicurean school of Greek philosophy. “I’m glad that the Vesuvius Challenge came at this time because it also shows, yeah, you can harm with A.I., but you can also do so much good and so much benefit to mankind,” says Youssef Nader, PhD student at the Free University of Berlin, one of the three students who won the Vesuvius Challenge.

Source:
Smithsonian Magazine

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