[HN Gopher] Researcher uses AI to make texts that are thousands ...
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Researcher uses AI to make texts that are thousands of years old
readable (2023)
Author : mooreds
Score : 22 points
Date : 2025-03-19 00:59 UTC (2 days ago)
(HTM) web link (phys.org)
(TXT) w3m dump (phys.org)
| pimlottc wrote:
| Nothing in the article even mentions artificial intelligence.
| Sounds more like a standard deterministic algorithm.
| jeroenhd wrote:
| The AI part seems to be part of the OCR algorithm. OCR has been
| using AI techniques for ages, so there's nothing new here,
| other than that this project is making good progress the more
| valid data they can decode with help of this, the more training
| data they have and the better subsequent OCR will be able to
| process near illegible tablets.
| WalterBright wrote:
| I am heartened by AI now being able to decipher my grandma's
| letters.
| sapphicsnail wrote:
| It talked about digitization but that could mean a lot of
| things. Are they just putting pictures of the fragments up? Is
| there a transcription of the fragments. Can the algorithm
| transcribe a fragment or does someone have to do that and then
| feed it to the algorithm? I don't know as much about cuneiform
| tablets but people get PhDs just to be able to recognize what
| letters are on a papyrus fragment. I'd be surprised if a
| computer could do that already.
| WalterBright wrote:
| > around 200 scholars worldwide have had access to the online
| platform for their research projects. Now it is to be made
| available to the public as well.
|
| I wonder - why hide it from the public and only allow 200
| scholars access to it?
|
| I recall the random guy who figured out how to read the charred
| scrolls of Herculaneum.
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