This interview podcast features Youssef Mohamed Nader, an AI researcher, and Julian Schilliger, a digital archaeologist, discussing their collaborative project using AI to virtually unroll and decipher ancient scrolls from Herculaneum, buried by Mount Vesuvius. The podcast details their approach, which involved using computer vision techniques to digitally unroll the scrolls and machine learning to make the charred ink visible. Their work resulted in the recovery of over 2,000 characters, representing the first coherent words read from an unopened papyrus sheet. The team's success highlights the potential of AI to unlock historical knowledge previously inaccessible due to the fragility of ancient artifacts. A 10,000-fold improvement in the speed and accuracy of the unrolling process was achieved through iterative improvements to the algorithm.
