✍️ AI Has Decoded Over a Thousand Ancient Documents
Libraries and archives around the world hold thousands of historical documents and artifacts that remain undeciphered. Now, AI-powered tools can crack the old codes.
Researchers at the University of Oslo have recently developed machine learning tools that can help read even skillfully classified manuscripts. In a project called Decrypt, AI identifies patterns in encrypted letters and other old documents, finds "keys" to decode them, and translates the characters into a computer-readable format. Linguists work further—they look for possible errors in the algorithms and check the machine interpretation of the code.
The difficulty with such research is that conventional language models require vast training material, which isn't feasible in this case. "Sometimes we have as little as half a page of text to work with," explains University of Oslo professor Michelle Waldispühl.
Nevertheless, scientists have already managed to decipher 57 letters of Mary Stuart, Queen of Scots, written in confinement between 1578 and 1584. They have also "translated" classified diplomatic letters sent to the Chancellor of Sweden, Axel Oxenstierna, by his ambassador to Germany during the Thirty Years War in the XVII century.
The Decrypt database already contains about 10,000 digitized records of ancient ciphertexts, about 6,000 encryption keys to read them, and the decryption and cryptanalysis of the texts themselves. All tools are in the public domain.
The researchers plan to use AI to decipher ancient languages and writing systems. For example, the early Greek language known as Linear B from about 3.5 thousand years ago. Scientists are also interested in decoding the mysterious 4,000-year-old Phaistos Disk from Crete—the first ever "printed" text stamped on clay using miniature stamps.
Norwegian researchers aren't the only ones using AI to unlock the mysteries of history. Last year, students partially deciphered a 2,000-year-old papyrus found during excavations of the ancient Roman city of Herculaneum, which perished along with Pompeii in the eruption of Vesuvius in 79 AD.
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