A New Chatbot Wants to Unlock the Secrets in Tattered Ancient Greek Records
wired ·
Researchers have developed Apollo, the world's first advanced large language model designed specifically for Ancient Greek, in a partnership between the Austrian Academy of Science, Mistral, and Sail Reply. Trained on approximately 600 million historical words from manuscripts and papyri, the AI aims to accelerate the laborious process of restoring damaged ancient texts by statistically predicting missing words or phrases. The model is accessible to academics via a free chatbot interface, allowing scholars to quickly identify relevant fragments and fill in gaps that were previously difficult to decipher due to the lack of word spacing in original scripts. By adapting to specific dialects and contexts, such as Homeric Greek or Doric inscriptions, Apollo assists experts in reconstructing documents without replacing their critical judgment. While the technology is unlikely to uncover major new literary works like lost plays by Sophocles, it promises to reveal finer details about daily life and administrative practices in antiquity. Experts emphasize that human oversight remains essential, as the system provides probabilistic suggestions rather than definitive interpretations to prevent errors in the historical record. If successful, this approach could be extended to other ancient languages like Latin or Egyptian, potentially transforming how various academic disciplines handle large corpora of historical material.
wired