AI fails

[briantrumpet]

Credit where credit's due: AI 'virtually' unwrapping burnt papyrus scrolls from Herculaneum and reading the texts.

https://www.reuters.com/science/com...laneum-scroll-unlocked-first-time-2026-06-25/

Researchers using artificial intelligence and advanced imaging said on Thursday they had achieved the first complete reading of a closed Herculaneum scroll burnt by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius nearly 2,000 years ago.

The breakthrough marks a ‌major step toward deciphering hundreds of ancient manuscripts found at Herculaneum, the Roman town destroyed along with Pompeii in the 79 AD disaster.

 

[Pblakeney]

Credit where credit's due: AI 'virtually' unwrapping burnt papyrus scrolls from Herculaneum and reading the texts.

https://www.reuters.com/science/com...laneum-scroll-unlocked-first-time-2026-06-25/

Just for the sake of mischief….
How do we know that it is correct?

 

[briantrumpet]

Just for the sake of mischief….
How do we know that it is correct?

Post the text here, and following Cunningham's Law, someone will tell you if you're wrong.

 

[briantrumpet]

Just for the sake of mischief….
How do we know that it is correct?

OK, Mateusz, you might have a point. OTOH, maybe this does belong in this thread.

 

[Pblakeney]

Post the text here, and following Cunningham's Law, someone will tell you if you're wrong.

Oh, I don’t need anyone’s law. I know it would happen. 🤣

 

[C R]

OK, Mateusz, you might have a point. OTOH, maybe this does belong in this thread.

View attachment 16009

I was going to write a long reply to your initial post saying just that.

 

[briantrumpet]

I was going to write a long reply to your initial post saying just that.

Slightly surprised that Reuters should have put its name to exaggerated reporting, *almost* as if the AI folk had written the report.

No, perish the thought.

 

[C R]

Slightly surprised that Reuters should have put its name to exaggerated reporting, *almost* as if the AI folk had written the report.

No, perish the thought.

I think you mean not surprised at all.

 

[briantrumpet]

Tehe.

https://inpreparation.substack.com/p/opinion-i-was-not-allowed-to-type

 

[Pblakeney]

Tehe.

https://inpreparation.substack.com/p/opinion-i-was-not-allowed-to-type

Well done to her. She has just proved that she is either redundant, or useless.
Either the university doesn’t need someone to do the job and can just use AI, or they need someone that doesn’t rely on AI.

 

[rakkor]

Well done to her. She has just proved that she is either redundant, or useless.
Either the university doesn’t need someone to do the job and can just use AI, or they need someone that doesn’t rely on AI.

Or it's a satirical take on the way that LLMs are the devil's work

 

[Pblakeney]

Or it's a satirical take on the way that LLMs are the devil's work

Possibly.
But it is an illustration of where we are.

 

[briantrumpet]

Well done to her. She has just proved that she is either redundant, or useless.
Either the university doesn’t need someone to do the job and can just use AI, or they need someone that doesn’t rely on AI.

I think you might have missed that it is satire.

 

[Pblakeney]

I think you might have missed that it is satire.

As above.

 

[briantrumpet]

Possibly.
But it is an illustration of where we are.

That's what satire often does. Sadly, sometimes the 'normal world' goes so mad that it's hard to spot satire, but there were several giveaways here once you'd been drawn in.