AI and scientists unite to decipher old scrolls charred by the Vesuvius volcano Scientists hope a mix of artificial intelligence and human expertise will help decipher ancient scrolls carbonized by a volcanic eruption 2,000 years ago.
On Wednesday, the challenge announced a “historic breakthrough,” saying researchers had managed to generate the first image of the inside of one of the three scrolls held at Oxford University’s Bodleian Library.
In 2023, several tech executives sponsored the “Vesuvius Challenge” competition, offering cash rewards for efforts to decipher the scrolls with machine learning, computer vision and geometry.
University of Kentucky computer scientist Brent Seales, co-founder of the Vesuvius Challenge, said the organizers were “thrilled with the successful imaging of this scroll.” He said it “contains more recoverable text than we have ever seen in a scanned Herculaneum scroll.”.
The heat and volcanic ash from Vesuvius destroyed the town and preserved the scrolls, but in an unreadable state, turning them into charred fragile blocks that disintegrate if unrolled physically.
