First passages of Herculaneum scroll are DECIPHERED by AI: Students use program to read more than 2,000 words on charred papyrus buried by Mount Vesuvius eruption in 79AD

The feat was part of a contest launched in 2023, and the team won $700,000 The famous Herculaneum scroll, charred papyrus found buried by the Mount Vesuvius eruption in 79AD, has been deciphered by artificial intelligence. The winning team The three students, from Egypt, Switzerland and the US, share a $700,000 grand prize for uncovering hundreds of words across more than 15 columns of text, corresponding to around five percent of an entire scroll. The three students, Youssef Nader, Luke Farritor and Julian Schilliger share a $700,000 grand prize for uncovering hundreds of words across more than 15 columns of text, corresponding to around five percent of an entire scroll The feat was achieved by students in a contest that trained algorithms on scans of the artifact The charred scrolls resurfaced in 1752 in a villa near the Bay of Naples that was once believed to belong to the father-in-law Julius Caesar, but their contents have remained a mystery as scientists judged them too fragile to unfurl. In the closing section of the text our author takes a parting shot at his adversaries, who 'have nothing to say about pleasure, either in general or in particular, when it is a question of definition' The scroll concluded: '… for we do refrain from questioning some things, but understanding/remembering others.