AI unseals charred 2,000-year-old Vesuvius scrolls
A trio of student researchers just used AI to read over 2,000 Greek letters inside a carbonized scroll from Mount Vesuvius's AD79 eruption, winning the $700,000 Vesuvius Challenge grand prize. The team applied machine learning to high-resolution CT scans to virtually unroll the fragile papyrus and detect ink traces. It opens the door to reading hundreds of completely charred ancient texts once thought lost forever.