AI reads text from ancient Herculaneum scroll for the first time

A 21-year-old undergraduate student has cracked a method for reading charred, unopenable scrolls from the ancient Roman city of Herculaneum. Luke Farritor trained a machine-learning algorithm on fragments of unrolled scrolls, detecting spots where the ink causes a tiny difference in texture. He then analysed closed scrolls that had been penetrated using X-ray computed tomography scans. The breakthrough could unlock the contents of hundreds of never-before-seen writings that were buried by Mount Vesuvius in October AD 79.