Elon Musk To 'Support' AI Unravelling Secrets Of Roman Scrolls: 'I'm In Favor Of Civilizational Enlightenment'

Elon Musk has pledged financial support for a project that uses artificial intelligence to decode ancient scrolls that have been unreadable for centuries.

What Happened: The project, known as the Vesuvius Challenge, initiated in March by Nat Friedman, the former CEO of GitHub, Daniel Gross, and Brent Seales, has achieved a significant breakthrough.

The team comprising Youssef Nader, Luke Farritor, and Julian Schilliger has successfully used AI to read entire paragraphs from charred scrolls from the Roman town of Herculaneum, which were preserved by the volcanic eruption that buried Pompeii.

After the announcement about this latest development earlier this week, Musk took to X, formerly Twitter, on Wednesday and expressed his intention to support the project through his charitable organization, the Musk Foundation.

The tech billionaire said that his foundation will provide the funding for the next phase of the project, although the exact amount of Musk’s contribution is yet to be determined, reported Bloomberg.

“Whatever amount is useful,” Musk stated. “I’m in favor of civilizational enlightenment.”

The next phase of the project, which will enable the team to read entire scrolls, is estimated to cost around $2 million. The total cost of deciphering all the scrolls from Herculaneum could reach $10 million, according to Friedman.

“I was shocked and thrilled to see Elon tweet his support of the next stages of the Vesuvius Challenge, and we welcome any contribution he will make!” Friedman told Bloomberg. "All donations are extremely helpful. We're in touch with Elon's team and working out the details of their support."

Why It Matters: The Vesuvius Challenge has been a significant development in the field of AI and historical preservation.

Initiated by Friedman and others, the project aimed to decode the Herculaneum Papyri, a set of ancient papyrus scrolls charred by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius almost two millennia ago.

The first challenge, which boasted over $1 million in rewards, drew a worldwide pool of competitors and collaborators to address the issue using computer vision and machine learning.

This development underscores the growing role of AI in various fields, from historical preservation to protecting artists’ work from unauthorized usage by AI image generators.

Earlier, AI was also used to interpret human thoughts into written words, demonstrating the diverse applications of AI in different sectors.

Meanwhile, Musk’s announcement about backing this AI project appears in the backdrop of the ongoing obsession social media has with the fall of the Roman Empire.

In September last year, the tech mogul shared an image that featured a stack of books, including the volumes of Edward Gibbon's "The Decline & Fall of The Roman Empire," published in 1776.

He had also posted a meme that illustrated an ancient Roman soldier emblazoned with the text: "Watching the Roman Empire collapse. But with Wi-Fi and memes this time."

Photo courtesy: Thomas Hawk on Flickr

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