Welcome to the deep dive.
Are you ready for this?
Today we're diving into how AI is being used to decode ancient languages and texts.
We've got all these amazing news articles about projects and discoveries
that are honestly like rewriting history.
Are you ready to have your mind blown?
I think mind blown is an understatement.
It's just incredible how AI isn't just translating.
It's actually like revealing these hidden connections and patterns
that have been buried for centuries.
Like having a new set of eyes to look at the past.
Yeah. Like can you imagine like being able to read a 5,000 year old shopping list?
Or what about cracking the enigma code in 10 minutes faster than Alan Turing?
We're talking about languages that have stumped experts for generations.
But now thanks to AI they're starting to give up their secrets.
It really is like changing the scale of what's possible when it comes to understanding the past.
A great example of this is the work being done on Hidite tablets over in Turkey.
So they've digitized 2,000 of these ancient tablets.
And the AI they're using is already at 75% accuracy in translation.
Wow. Okay. So 75% might not sound like a lot.
But think about it this way.
Deciphering these tablets used to take years.
And we're talking about just for a single scholar to translate one tablet.
Now we're talking about thousands of tablets being translated so fast.
I mean, what mysteries are you most curious about solving with this technology?
Oh, the possibilities are really endless.
And it's not even just about the speed.
Take the Dead Sea Scrolls, for example.
When AI analyzed the Great Isaiah Scroll,
it actually found out that it was written by two different scribes.
Wait a minute. How is that even possible?
Handwriting. AI can pick up on these tiny, almost invisible differences that humans often miss.
It's like using a microscope on historical documents.
Wow. So what if we could apply this to like any historical text?
Could we end up like rewriting what we know about major historical events
or even like challenge the authorship of famous works?
It's like we're holding a magnifying glass up to history.
Exactly.
And speaking of rewriting history,
there's this really interesting story of Linear B.
This script baffled experts for decades.
It was like they were trying to read hieroglyphics without the Rosetta Stone.
Oh yeah. Linear B. That sounds familiar.
But can you remind me what was the breakthrough there?
Well, AI finally helped crack the code.
Turns out Linear B is an early form of Greek.
This discovery pushed back the timeline of written Greek by centuries,
which completely changed what we thought we knew about ancient Greek history.
Wow. So we basically had to rewrite textbooks because of AI. That's huge.
Yeah, it really is.
And now researchers are using similar AI techniques to tackle even more challenging languages
like Etruscan and Iberian, which have no close modern relatives at all.
It makes you wonder how many cultures and stories we thought were just lost.
It might actually be recovered with this technology.
It's a very real possibility.
We might be super close to understanding civilizations that we thought were gone forever.
It's an exciting time.
It's like all of a sudden we have this key that unlocks doors we didn't even know existed.
And that key is AI.
But what's even cooler is that this isn't limited to just ancient languages.
Researchers are using AI to decode other complex communication systems as well.
Oh wow. Like what? Give me an example.
Like the waggle dance of bees.
No way. Are you telling me that AI can understand what bees are saying to each other?
It's still early, but researchers are using AI to analyze these dances
and try to understand how bees communicate the location of food or potential threats,
even like the overall health of the hive.
So like theoretically we could talk to bees.
That's insane. What could we even learn from them?
Imagine the possibilities.
Understanding bee communication could revolutionize agriculture and even conservation efforts.
We could learn how to better protect them, optimize pollination strategies,
and even gain insights into the health of ecosystems.
That's mind-blowing. It's like we're on the edge of this whole new era of communication.
Not just with ancient civilizations, but with nature itself.
It's a pretty exciting time to be alive, right?
Absolutely. But before we get ahead of ourselves,
let's talk about one of the biggest mysteries of all time, the Voynich manuscript.
Ah yes. The Voynich manuscript.
That 600-year-old book filled with weird illustrations and undecipherable scripts.
It's been called the most mysterious manuscript in the world for a reason.
It sounds like something out of a conspiracy theory.
What are some of the theories about what it is?
Oh, there are tons. From medieval medical texts to coded messages from secret societies.
It's a puzzle that has stumped the smartest people for centuries.
And now AI is bringing some really interesting new possibilities to the table.
Okay, can't leave me hanging.
What is AI telling us about this mysterious book?
Well, researchers have used AI to analyze the manuscript structure.
And it's suggesting a possible Hebrew code, even more exciting.
AI has been able to offer partial translations.
Hold on. So AI is translating the Voynich manuscript. What's it saying?
One of the early translations was,
she made recommendations to the priest, man of the house, and me and people.
Oh, that's cryptic.
But still, it's amazing to think that AI might be the key to unlocking this book.
It's a big step forward.
But as with anything related to the Voynich manuscript,
there's still a ton of debate and skepticism. A lot of experts are still cautious,
pointing out that previous attempts have suggested other languages.
So is this a real breakthrough?
Or just another theory in a long line of failed attempts?
I guess only time will tell.
I think that's the best part about mysteries like this. They keep us guessing.
And remind us that there's still so much that we don't know.
I don't know about you, but I am hooked.
I can't wait to see what other secrets AI helps us unlock.
We've barely scratched the surface. There's a whole world of knowledge waiting to be discovered.
And we'll be right back to dive even deeper into these amazing breakthroughs.
Okay, so we're back and ready to keep going with all the ways AI is helping us understand the past.
Last time we were talking about AI being able to translate those ancient languages
and even deciphering those complex communication systems like the waggle dance of bees.
Yeah, that was pretty wild, huh?
It would be crazy if we could actually talk to others about AI.
If we could actually talk to other species someday.
Imagine that.
But okay, for now, let's stick with these breakthroughs that are happening with ancient languages.
I was reading about this AI model that can translate dead languages in seconds.
What can you tell me about that?
Yeah, that's a really interesting one.
That model is focused on Akkadian, one of the oldest and most complex languages in the world.
It was spoken in ancient Mesopotamia.
And they used cuneiform, which is that writing system that uses those wedge shaped symbols,
you know, etched into clay tablets.
Oh yeah, I've seen pictures of those tablets.
They always look so mysterious.
Like they're holding the secrets of some lost civilization.
Well, they do.
And for a long time translating Akkadian was a really time consuming process.
First, you had to transliterate it into Latin characters,
and then you could translate it into English.
But this AI model can do it all in just seconds.
Wow, so it's like a Google translate for ancient languages?
Pretty much, yeah.
And it's really accurate too, like 97% accuracy rate for Latin transliterations.
That's incredible.
It does have some trouble with like literary or more creative texts,
which makes sense.
Those are always harder to translate.
Yeah, I can imagine that.
So what does this mean for like our understanding of Akkadian texts?
I think it has the potential to really accelerate research in this area.
Imagine scholars being able to scan through thousands of tablets super fast,
and pick out the ones that are most important to their work.
It could open up whole new areas of research.
That's so cool.
It seems like AI is like unlocking a whole new era of discovery for ancient history.
Speaking of unlocking secrets, what about this whole thing with plants and AI?
That's a weird one I'd love to hear more about.
Oh yeah, the language of plants.
It sounds like science fiction, I know.
But there are some companies out there developing AI models that can interpret the signals that
plants give off in response to their environment.
Signals, what kind of signals are we talking about here?
Well, it can be anything from electrical signals in their routes
to ultrasonic sounds they make when they're stressed.
It's like this whole world of communication we didn't even know about.
So plants are talking to each other, and AI is listening in on their conversations.
That is wild.
What could we even learn from that?
Well, think about it.
What if farmers could use AI to understand what their crops need?
Then they could optimize their water usage and fertilizer,
leading to better farming practices, more efficient, more sustainable.
Some early studies have even shown a 30% reduction in energy use in greenhouses,
while still growing the same amount of food.
Wow, that's really impressive.
So AI isn't just helping us understand the past,
it's also helping us create a more sustainable future.
Exactly, it's a perfect example of how we can use AI to tackle some of the biggest problems.
Definitely.
Before we get too far ahead though, let's go back to one more cool AI discovery from the past.
Have you ever heard of the Archimedes polympsest?
Oh yeah, for sure.
I feel like I've heard that name before.
But I can't quite remember what it is.
So it's this ancient manuscript that has some previously unknown texts by Archimedes,
that famous Greek mathematician.
But here's the thing, it's a polympsest,
which means the original writing was scraped off,
and they reused the page for something new.
Oh wow, so it's like an ancient version of recycling.
But how can you even read the original if it's been erased?
Well, that's where AI comes in.
They use this thing called multispectral imaging,
and it can basically like peel back the layers of text to see what's underneath.
It's like digital archaeology.
That's amazing.
So what kind of stuff did they find on the Archimedes polympsest?
They found some of his lost works on topics like infinity, geometry,
even a method that's super similar to what we call calculus today.
That's mind-blowing that we're still learning new things from Archimedes.
After all these centuries.
It really shows how smart he was, and how powerful technology can be.
To rediscover things we thought were gone forever.
Totally. Speaking of rediscovering lost knowledge,
there was this story I read about an AI model called fragmentary.
It was used to analyze all these clay tablets from ancient Babylon.
Oh yeah, fragmentary.
That's a huge one for understanding Babylonian literature.
Those tablets were so hard for humans to piece together,
because a lot of them were broken or had missing pieces.
So it's like a jigsaw puzzle, but with ancient writing instead of pictures.
Exactly.
And fragmentary was able to reconstruct inscriptions that had stumped experts for years.
Wow, so what did they find?
One of the coolest discoveries was this beautiful hymn.
It describes the arrival of spring in Babylon.
Really vivid imagery.
Like rivers nourishing the plains, and grains growing in the fields.
It gives us a glimpse into how they experience the world.
That's amazing.
It's like looking through a window into their culture and beliefs.
I know.
And what makes it even more interesting is that it's a whole new genre of hymns in Babylonian literature.
Hymns dedicated to cities.
This was a foreign that had been lost for thousands of years.
And now, thanks to AI, we're rediscovering it.
That's so cool.
It's incredible that we're still learning so much about these ancient cultures.
I know.
It's awesome.
And you know, AI isn't just helping us understand ancient languages.
It's also being used to document and revitalize languages that are still spoken today,
but are in danger of disappearing.
Oh wow, yeah.
That's so important.
Language is such a huge part of any culture.
Losing a language is like losing a whole way of seeing the world.
Exactly.
And AI is playing a crucial role in this effort.
For example, there are researchers using AI to create digital archive of indigenous languages
all over the world.
These archives include recordings of native speakers,
written texts, even grammatical analyses.
It's like creating a digital time capsule for these languages.
That's a beautiful way to put it.
So future generations can still connect with their heritage.
Exactly.
It's such a powerful example of how we can use technology to preserve cultural diversity.
I totally agree.
It's amazing to see all the good that AI can do.
It really is.
But we also have to be careful.
Like with any powerful technology, we need to make sure that AI is used ethically and responsibly,
especially when we're dealing with something as sensitive as language,
which is so connected to people's identities and cultures.
That's such a good point.
We have to make sure AI is used to empower people not to exploit them.
Exactly.
It's a conversation we need to keep having as AI continues to get more advanced.
Yeah, definitely.
But for now, let's stay positive and celebrate all the incredible ways AI is helping us connect with language.
Couldn't agree more.
There's so much to explore.
Speaking of exploring, there's one more story I wanted to talk about
about this project that's using AI to help decode the Iberian language.
Oh, yes, Iberian.
That one has been stumping linguists forever.
Tell me more.
Why is it so hard to decipher?
Well, unlike a lot of ancient languages, Iberian doesn't have a direct descendant.
It's what we call a linguistic isolate.
It's not related to any other language families that we know of.
So there's no Rosetta Stone for Iberian.
It's really tough.
So how are researchers even starting to figure it out?
That's where the AI comes in.
Researchers at MIT created this machine learning algorithm,
specifically to crack the code of extinct languages like Iberian.
Instead of relying on a related modern language, it looks for sound changes.
Sound changes across all kinds of languages.
Trying to connect Iberian words with similar sounding terms in languages we do understand.
Wow, so it's like a linguistic detective.
I like that.
Looking for clues across time and space.
Exactly.
And it's working.
They're getting some interesting results.
It's even challenging some old ideas about how Iberian might be related to BASC.
So AI is rewriting what we thought we knew about this ancient language.
It really is.
And it's giving us hope that someday we might be able to fully understand the people who spoke it.
This is all so crazy.
I can't believe how much AI is changing the way we see the world.
It's remarkable.
But wait, before we move on, there's one more AI project I wanted to mention.
It's about the Vindalanda tablets.
They were discovered in an ancient Roman fort, your Hadrian's Wall in England.
Oh, right.
I know those.
They're full of information about daily life in Roman Britain.
Yeah, they are.
But like a lot of these old texts, they've been damaged over time.
Thankfully, AI is coming to the rescue.
You got it.
Researchers are using these machine learning algorithms to analyze pictures of the tablets
and figure out patterns in the faded writing.
So it's like a digital restoration project.
Yeah, it is.
And it's helping to make these documents much easier to read for scholars.
That's awesome.
It's like AI is building a bridge between the past and the present.
I love that.
It makes you wonder what other amazing things are out there just waiting to be found.
I know, right?
I guess we'll have to stay tuned.
But okay, for now, we're going to take a quick break.
And when we come back, we'll wrap up our deep dive into the world of AI and ancient languages.
All right, we are back for the final part of our deep dive into how AI is changing the way we
understand ancient languages.
It's amazing to think about how much this technology is changing,
how we think about what we can know, and what's lost forever.
You're telling me.
We've talked about AI translating all these ancient texts,
reconstructing damaged documents, and even understanding how bees communicate.
Yeah, and now we're going to tackle one of the biggest mysteries out there,
the Voynich manuscript.
Oh, yeah, that's a good one.
The 600-year-old book with those bizarre illustrations and that crazy script that
nobody can read, it's puzzled experts for centuries.
It's like something right out of a movie.
People have come up with some wild theories about it,
everything from alien communication to medieval medical guides.
Where do you even start with something like that?
I know it's a puzzle that's captured people's imaginations for generations,
but the exciting thing is that AI is starting to offer some new clues.
Okay, I'm listening.
What's AI telling us about the Voynich manuscript?
Well, researchers have been using AI to analyze the language in the manuscript,
and it's suggesting that it might be a Hebrew code.
And get this, AI has even been able to make some partial translations.
Wait a second, AI is actually translating the Voynich manuscript.
What's it saying?
One of the first translations they got was,
she made recommendations to the priest, man of the house, and me and people.
Huh, well that's definitely cryptic,
but it's still incredible that AI might be able to finally unlock the secrets of this book.
I know, right?
It's a huge step forward.
But like we've said with the Voynich manuscript,
there are always a lot of different opinions and a lot of skepticism.
A lot of experts are still being careful,
because there have been so many attempts to decode the Voynich manuscript before,
and they haven't worked.
Right, so is this a real breakthrough?
Or is this just another theory that's going to turn out to be wrong?
I guess the only time we'll tell.
I think that's what makes these kinds of mysteries so fascinating.
They keep us guessing,
and remind us that there's still so much we don't understand.
Okay, so let's move on to another unsolved mystery.
What about Linear A?
That was the writing system of the Minoans, right?
Right.
That ancient civilization that lived on the island of Crete.
Exactly.
I remember learning about them.
They had that whole palace culture with the bull leaping.
Yeah.
And the myths about the Minotaur and the Labyrinth.
Oh yeah, they were a really interesting civilization,
very advanced for their time.
But unlike Linear B, which we now know is an early form of Greek,
Linear A is still a complete mystery.
So we can't read anything written in Linear A.
Not yet.
We know it's not Greek,
and it's probably connected to some languages that were spoken around the agency,
back in the Bronze Age.
But nobody's been able to crack the code.
But AI might be able to help, right?
It's been so successful with other ancient languages.
Yeah, researchers are hopeful they're using machine learning to analyze the script,
looking for patterns that might tell us what the symbols mean.
It's like a giant puzzle.
Yeah.
But with ancient symbols, you said pictures.
Exactly.
And as AI gets better,
I think we're going to see some big breakthroughs
in our understanding of the Minoans.
So we might be able to read their writing someday.
It'd be amazing.
So we've talked about Linear A.
We've talked about the Voynich manuscript.
What other ancient civilizations are we learning more about, thanks to AI?
Well, one really fascinating civilization that researchers are focusing on
is the Etruscans.
They lived in central Italy, before the Roman Empire.
Oh, yeah.
I remember reading about them.
They have those elaborate tombs.
Oh.
And they love to have feasts.
Yeah.
And their language has always been a mystery.
You got it.
And even though we have a lot of Etruscan artifacts,
their language has been a real challenge to understand.
It doesn't seem to be related to any other language we know of.
Oh, so it's like Iberian.
Exactly.
Another linguistic isolator.
Wow.
But researchers are using some really cool technology to try and decode it.
They're using neural machine translation models,
similar to the ones they used for Linear B,
to analyze Etruscan texts and look for patterns.
It's like having a digital Rosetta Stone.
Pretty much.
One really exciting project is focused on this 2,500-year-old steel artifact.
It was found near Florence.
And it's covered in Etruscan inscriptions.
Researchers are hoping AI can help them figure out what it says.
That's so cool.
Imagine if we could finally understand the Etruscans.
That would completely change how we think about ancient Italy.
It really would.
It shows how AI can help us connect with the past in ways we never imagined.
And speaking of connecting with the past,
you mentioned earlier that AI is being used to decode the waggle dance of bees.
Oh, yeah.
That's right.
Can you tell me more about that?
So researchers built this special beehive with see-through walls
so they can film the bees with cameras.
And then they feed all that data into an AI system.
That can understand the waggle dances.
Wow. So it's like a bee dance translator.
Exactly.
The AI looks at how the bees move, like the angles and how long they waggle.
And it can figure out what they're trying to say.
It can even pinpoint where food sources are based on the dance.
That's wild.
What could we do if we could actually understand bee communication?
I think it could have a huge impact on things like
agriculture and conservation.
Imagine being able to understand how bees pollinate, how they navigate,
and how we can protect them from things like pesticides.
That would be incredible.
It just shows that we can learn so much from nature if we pay attention.
Well said.
This whole field of study is really about being open to new possibilities.
Definitely.
It's been an incredible journey exploring AI and ancient languages.
We've seen how it's changing, how we think about the past,
and giving us hope for the future.
I agree.
It all comes back to human curiosity and our desire to learn.
It really does.
And to everyone listening, thank you for joining us on this deep dive.
We hope you learned some cool stuff and that you're feeling inspired to see the world in new ways.
That's all for today.