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Deep Learning Helps Recover Historic Inscriptions with Unprecedented Precision

A conservationist works on a 1,500-year-old mosaic floor bearing Greek writing, discovered in Jerusalem's Old City. (Reuters file photo)
A conservationist works on a 1,500-year-old mosaic floor bearing Greek writing, discovered in Jerusalem's Old City. (Reuters file photo)
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Deep Learning Helps Recover Historic Inscriptions with Unprecedented Precision

A conservationist works on a 1,500-year-old mosaic floor bearing Greek writing, discovered in Jerusalem's Old City. (Reuters file photo)
A conservationist works on a 1,500-year-old mosaic floor bearing Greek writing, discovered in Jerusalem's Old City. (Reuters file photo)

A new AI-based deep learning technique has recovered ancient Greek texts, determined they date to the 5th century AD, and pinpointed their original location with an unprecedented precision.

According to Agence France Press (AFP), this technique described in the journal Nature, allows historians specializing in epigraphy to track tens of thousands of inscriptions engraved in stone, clay or metal.

Many of these inscriptions have deteriorated over time, leaving some text unreadable due to missing pieces or transfer from original site, and therefore, the radiocarbon dating technique cannot be used in this case.

To help epigraphists decipher these inscriptions, researchers from the Universities of Venice, Oxford, Athens in collaboration with Google’s DeepMind lab have developed a deep learning tool, an artificial intelligence technique that uses a “neural network” that simulates the human brain.

Named Ithaca, after the island of Odysseus in “The Iliad and The Odyssey”, this tool was trained on nearly 80,000 texts from the Packard Humanities Institute database, the largest digital collection of ancient Greek inscriptions. Ithaca’s language processing technique considers the order in which words appear in sentences and their links to each other to better contextualize them.

Because the texts feature many gaps, Ithaca had to merge the words and characters scattered on the stones. It then examined decrees from the 5th century BC engraved on stones from the Acropolis of Athens.

The tool assumed that the letter sequencing could help fill in the gaps in accordance with the historical context. For example, it suggested the word “covenant” to fill a six-character word missing from an oath of allegiance to a city in Athens. Then, the final decision to select the most credible prediction was left to the historians.

But their work was made much easier, as the work of Ithaca alone was 62% accurate. And when used by historians, the accuracy rate of the tool, described as“accessible”, jumped from 25% to 72%, explained the study published in the journal Nature, highlighting the benefits of man-machine cooperation.

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Meta Unveils Cheaper VR Headset, AI Updates and Shows off Prototype for Holographic AR Glasses

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg wearing glasses (Reuters).
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg wearing glasses (Reuters).
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Meta Unveils Cheaper VR Headset, AI Updates and Shows off Prototype for Holographic AR Glasses

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg wearing glasses (Reuters).
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg wearing glasses (Reuters).

Meta unveiled updates to the company's virtual reality headset and Ray Ban smart glasses on Wednesday as it tries to demonstrate its artificial intelligence prowess and the next generation of computing platforms beyond smartphones and computers.
CEO Mark Zuckerberg also showed off Orion, a prototype he called “the most advanced glasses the world has ever seen.”
“The technical challenges to make them are insane,” Zuckerberg told a crowd of developers and journalists at Meta's Menlo Park, California, headquarters. The holographic augmented reality glasses, for one, needed to be glasses — not a bulky headset. There are no wires and they have to weigh less than 100 grams (3.5 ounces), among other things. And beyond interacting with your voice, typing or hand gestures, Orion has a “wrist-based neural interface” — it lets you send a signal from your brain to the device, using a wristband that translates nerve signals into digital commands.
There is no release date for Orion — Zuckerberg called it a “glimpse of the future.”
Seemingly in his element speaking to a cheering crowd, Zuckerberg said Meta is working to “bring the future to everyone” with its headsets, glasses and AI system. As part of an update to its Llama model, people will now be able to interact with Meta AI by speaking, with voices from celebrities such as John Cena, Judi Dench and Awkwafina.
“We are trying to build a future that is more open, more accessible, more natural, and more about human connection," Zuckerberg said. ”This is the continuation of the values and ideas that we have brought to the apps and technology that we have built over Meta’s first 20 years.”
An AI update aimed at influencers allows them to craft AI versions of themselves — for interacting with fans. On the keynote stage, an AI version of creator Don Allen Stevenson III appeared on the screen and answered a few questions just as the actual creator would. When Zuckerberg asked the AI creator about cattle ranching, it responded “my expertise lies in technology and design, not agriculture.” An earlier version of this tool was text only.
Other AI updates include live translation, which Zuckerberg demonstrated on stage. While wearing the smart glasses, Zuckerberg spoke in English to Mexican mixed martial artist Brandon Moreno replying in Spanish — the conversation was translated in real time. People can also dub their videos in another language so that it looks like they are speaking natively — even going so far as changing their lips movements to match.
Meta AI now has 500 million users, the company said. Jeremy Goldman of the research firm Emarketer called the number “jaw-dropping.”
“Meta has transformed from just a social media company into an AI powerhouse. Zuckerberg’s move to celebrity voices is not just for fun — it’s a direct challenge to OpenAI, with an emphasis on real-world utility," Goldman said.
Meta, which introduced the Quest 3 last year, also showed off a cheaper version of the VR goggles — the 3S — that will cost $299. The regular Quest 3 costs $499. The S3 will start shipping on Oct. 15.
“Meta is aggressively undercutting Apple’s Vision Pro to dominate the middle-tier AR/VR market,” Goldman said. Those VR goggles, which came out earlier this year after much anticipation, cost $3,500.
While VR goggles have grabbed more headlines, the augmented reality Ray Bans turned out to be a sleeper hit for Meta. The company hasn't disclosed sales numbers, but Zuckerberg said during Meta's July earnings call that the glasses “continue to be a bigger hit sooner than we expected — thanks in part to AI.” Zuckerberg said on Wednesday that Meta seems to have gotten past the supply issues that plagued the Ray Bans a few months ago due to high demand.
“They are kind of the perfect form factor for AI,” Zuckerberg said. The glasses, he added, let an AI assistant “see what you see, hear what you hear” and help you go about your day.
For instance, you can ask the glasses to remind you where you parked or to pick up groceries, look at a pile of fruit and come up with a smoothie recipe, or help you pick out a party outfit.
Meta — which renamed itself from Facebook in 2021, still makes nearly all of its money from advertising. In its most recent quarter, 98% of its more than $39 billion in revenue came from ads. At the same time, the company is investing heavily in AI and what Zuckerberg sees as the next generation of computing platforms such as VR headsets and AR glasses.
“VR headsets, despite Meta’s assertion, will not go mainstream," said Forrester research director Mike Proulx. “They’re too cumbersome, and people can only tolerate them in short bursts.”
Glasses, on the other hand “put computing power directly into a common and familiar form factor. As the smart tech behind these glasses matures, they have the potential to disrupt everyday consumers’ interactions with brands.”
Proulx said the Orion prototype "sets the stage for a future where a revolutionary 3D computing platform is within reach and can actually be useful to the everyday consumer.”