this post was submitted on 14 Oct 2023
153 points (95.3% liked)

Technology

59424 readers
3168 users here now

This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.


Our Rules


  1. Follow the lemmy.world rules.
  2. Only tech related content.
  3. Be excellent to each another!
  4. Mod approved content bots can post up to 10 articles per day.
  5. Threads asking for personal tech support may be deleted.
  6. Politics threads may be removed.
  7. No memes allowed as posts, OK to post as comments.
  8. Only approved bots from the list below, to ask if your bot can be added please contact us.
  9. Check for duplicates before posting, duplicates may be removed

Approved Bots


founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
 

A student, as part of a contest, used a machine-learning algorithm and CT scans to analyse on closed scrolls, buried by Mount Vesuvius in October AD 79. The breakthrough could unlock the contents of hundreds of never-before-seen writings.

all 17 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] [email protected] 44 points 1 year ago

"Epstein didn't kill himself"

[–] [email protected] 23 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Sooo... how can they verify that it is reading it correctly...?

[–] [email protected] 24 points 1 year ago (2 children)

We can see how it makes the translation and verify that it's making accurate judgements based on the data it's being fed. We can check the AI against controls too, other scrolls that we know what they say already and feed it data on them until it gets very accurate on those ones. Then apply that model to these unknown scrolls.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 1 year ago

Note that the AI discussed in the article wasn’t translating anything. It was determining what was written in the original language by using scans of sections of the scroll, taking into account patterns (the “crackle”), differences in texture, etc., that hadn’t been leveraged in this way before.

Otherwise you’re spot on - it was trained on other similar scans that exhibited those patterns where the written text was already known.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

Thanks to you and the next person for the extra detail.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago

We already know the language that's not what they are saying, this is reading the inside the rolled up scroll that's too fragile to unroll so we don't know what was in there

[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (4 children)

I want an AI based translation of allthe Dead Sea Scrolls as long as we can remove the bias from the training data. Bonus points of it can additionally qualify reasoning for translations. So we can error check.

[–] [email protected] 20 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

I want an AI based translation of all the Dead Sea Scrolls as long as we can remove the bias from the training data.

Emphasis mine. So then you don't want an AI based translation of all the Dead Sea Scrolls?

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago

i dont want the translation to be informed by the human understanding of the significance of the content, nor the subjective expectations of what a holy scripture would intent to say, based on a personal understanding of faith.

i dont think this should be controversial.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago

Reality is biased.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

All the Dead Sea Scrolls that we know of. I am about 90% sure we have them all, 10% that the Vatican has a text fragments or two that they are sitting on.

It shouldn't take 40-45 years to take a few photographs and any translation difficulties would be better solved by the community vs individual professors.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 year ago (3 children)

I don't see the point, I've never seen an AI that can translate better than a human

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

That doesn't mean one doesn't exist. Think of how far video transcription has come in the last decade. AI will absolutely surpass human ability to quickly and very accurately translate text.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

AI is waaaay better for English to Chinese translation, I can tell you that from experience in my personal life.

There's a lot of nuance to translation, especially for languages with completely different structures.

Not seeing the point of everything you've never seen is a good way to get poked in the eyes my friend.

[–] [email protected] -2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Regardless of capability a human will have a bias. So maybe have multiple humans of varying beliefs and then have the AI train to remove the bias?

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago

AI might also have a bias depending on its training data.