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AI Deciphers 2000-Year-Old Vesuvius Scrolls Winning $1.8 Million Prize

Peter Diamandis · Sonnet 5 Drops, Fable 5 Will Return & Fusion’s First Plant Gets Licensed W/ Philip Johnston | #268 · July 1, 2026
AI Deciphers 2000-Year-Old Vesuvius Scrolls Winning $1.8 Million Prize
Peter Diamandis
Peter Diamandis
Sonnet 5 Drops, Fable 5 Will Return & Fusion’s First Plant Gets Licensed W/ Philip Johnston | #268
"For almost 2,000 years they've been unreadable, and they have just been won. So this is the first time it's done. You can see here in the image these scrolls of ancient Greek that have been linearized and laid out by the AI, 22 columns of ancient Greek text."
AI successfully decoded carbonized scrolls buried by Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD, winning the Vesuvius Challenge founded by former GitHub CEO Nat Friedman. The breakthrough used CT scans combined with AI to read text from scrolls that would be destroyed if physically opened. Hundreds of additional scrolls remain available for decoding using this technique.
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Peter Diamandis
Peter Diamandis

Sonnet 5 Drops, Fable 5 Will Return & Fusion’s First Plant Gets Licensed W/ Philip Johnston | #268

August 3, 2026 · 1h 50m · 8 Egleze moments
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