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AIQuiet 4d · day 4

Austrian Academy releases Apollo, an AI model for ancient Greek papyrus restoration

A new large language model trained on 600 million historical Greek words aims to help scholars rapidly restore damaged ancient texts.

newest coverage 4d agosummary written 4d ago4 pieces NewswiresMastodonGoogle News

What to know

  • The Austrian Academy of Science released Apollo, a specialized large language model trained on 600 million historical Greek words, designed to automatically fill gaps in damaged ancient papyrus fragments.
  • Apollo encodes specialized knowledge of Greek dialects and historical contexts that previously required rare human expertise, potentially accelerating academic restoration work.
  • Scholars expect the tool to uncover incremental details about daily life in antiquity but are realistic that it won't produce dramatic discoveries like lost literary works.

“Every time something is produced, it adds a tiny element of knowledge about the ancient world.”

Armand D'Angour, Professor of classical languages and literature, University of Oxford · Wired ↗

Austrian Academy of Science Releasing institutionMistral AI lab partnerSail Reply Technology services partnerStephen Colvin Classics and historical linguistics professor, University College LondonArmand D'Angour Classical languages and literature professor, University of OxfordDimitris Vlitas Partner at Sail Reply

Austrian Academy releases Apollo, an AI model for ancient Greek papyrus restoration
wired.com

How it unfolded 2 developments, newest first · click a bar or a number to jump articlesposts

Peak 3 pieces in one hour at Sep 22, 5 AM; 4 pieces over 4 days (3 articles · 1 post) Sep 22, 5 AM — 3 pieces · 2 articles · 1 post — Google News 1, Mastodon 1, Newswires 1Sep 22, 6 AM — 1 piece · 1 article — Newswires 1Sep 22, 7 AM — quietSep 22, 8 AM — quietSep 22, 9 AM — quietSep 22, 10 AM — quietSep 22, 11 AM — quietSep 22, 12 PM — quietSep 22, 1 PM — quietSep 22, 2 PM — quietSep 22, 3 PM — quietSep 22, 4 PM — quietSep 22, 5 PM — quietSep 22, 6 PM — quietSep 22, 7 PM — quietSep 22, 8 PM — quietSep 22, 9 PM — quietSep 22, 10 PM — quietSep 22, 11 PM — quietSep 23, 12 AM — quietSep 23, 1 AM — quietSep 23, 2 AM — quietSep 23, 3 AM — quietSep 23, 4 AM — quietSep 23, 5 AM — quietSep 23, 6 AM — quietSep 23, 7 AM — quietSep 23, 8 AM — quietSep 23, 9 AM — quietSep 23, 10 AM — quietSep 23, 11 AM — quietSep 23, 12 PM — quietSep 23, 1 PM — quietSep 23, 2 PM — quietSep 23, 3 PM — quietSep 23, 4 PM — quietSep 23, 5 PM — quietSep 23, 6 PM — quietSep 23, 7 PM — quietSep 23, 8 PM — quietSep 23, 9 PM — quietSep 23, 10 PM — quietSep 23, 11 PM — quietSep 24, 12 AM — quietSep 24, 1 AM — quietSep 24, 2 AM — quietSep 24, 3 AM — quietSep 24, 4 AM — quietSep 24, 5 AM — quietSep 24, 6 AM — quietSep 24, 7 AM — quietSep 24, 8 AM — quietSep 24, 9 AM — quietSep 24, 10 AM — quietSep 24, 11 AM — quietSep 24, 12 PM — quietSep 24, 1 PM — quietSep 24, 2 PM — quietSep 24, 3 PM — quietSep 24, 4 PM — quietSep 24, 5 PM — quietSep 24, 6 PM — quietSep 24, 7 PM — quietSep 24, 8 PM — quietSep 24, 9 PM — quietSep 24, 10 PM — quietSep 24, 11 PM — quietYesterday, 12 AM — quietYesterday, 1 AM — quietYesterday, 2 AM — quietYesterday, 3 AM — quietYesterday, 4 AM — quietYesterday, 5 AM — quietYesterday, 6 AM — quietYesterday, 7 AM — quietYesterday, 8 AM — quietYesterday, 9 AM — quietYesterday, 10 AM — quietYesterday, 11 AM — quietYesterday, 12 PM — quietYesterday, 1 PM — quietYesterday, 2 PM — quietYesterday, 3 PM — quietYesterday, 4 PM — quietYesterday, 5 PM — quietYesterday, 6 PM — quietYesterday, 7 PM — quietYesterday, 8 PM — quietYesterday, 9 PM — quietYesterday, 10 PM — quietYesterday, 11 PM — quietToday, 12 AM — quietToday, 1 AM — quietToday, 2 AM — quietToday, 3 AM — quietToday, 4 AM — quietToday, 5 AM — quietToday, 6 AM — quietToday, 7 AM — quietToday, 8 AM — quiet 1–2
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  1. background

    Scholars expect Apollo to accelerate mundane research, not transform understanding of antiquity — Academics noted that Apollo is unlikely to yield dramatic discoveries like lost plays by Sophocles, as many unrestored papyri contain mundane documents like personal letters and contracts. However, the model could help uncover incremental details about daily life in antiquity and substantiate existing historical assumptions.

  2. 2

    Apollo designed to fill gaps in damaged papyrus fragments using statistical likelihood

    The model is built to identify word divisions in ancient Greek text, weigh socio-political contexts, and fill blanks with the most statistically likely words or passages. This automates work previously requiring specialized scholars to manually restore damaged documents.

    “If I had a machine telling me, 'Here are the three possible words that could fit into that gap,' it would speed up matters considerably.”
    — Armand D'Angour
  3. 1

    Austrian Academy of Science releases Apollo, an ancient Greek language model

    The Austrian Academy of Science released Apollo, a large language model trained on approximately 600 million historical Greek words from manuscripts, papyri, and inscriptions. Developed in partnership with French AI lab Mistral and technology services firm Sail Reply, the model is freely available to academics through a chatbot interface.

    “When it sees Homer, it supplements Homeric Greek. When it sees an inscription in Doric dialect, it uses Doric dialect.”
    — Anna Dolganov

    1. 1 outlet first by Wired, 4d ago · read ↗