Episode
Brent Seales - How AI Is Reading the Only Library That Survived Antiquity (Ep. 328)
- Podcast
- Infinite Loops
- Published
- Sep 17, 2026
- Duration seconds
- 3290
- Processing state
not_requested- Canonical source
- https://www.infiniteloopspodcast.com/328
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Summary
Dr. Brent Seales, computer scientist at the University of Kentucky and co-founder of the Vesuvius Challenge, joins guest host Nick Tawil on Infinite Loops to explain how synchrotron X-rays and machine learning are making unopenable ancient scrolls readable, and why the work has now shifted from engineering to reading. This summer in Naples, his team presented results from three sealed Herculaneum scrolls, including the first read end to end. Show Notes Brent Seales & Nick Tawil Dr. Brent Seales: Stanley and Karen Pigman Chair of Heritage Science at the University of Kentucky and co-founder of the Vesuvius Challenge. Brent Seales at the University of Kentucky Vesuvius Challenge: The open competition Brent co-founded with Nat Friedman and Daniel Gross to read the carbonized Herculaneum scrolls. Vesuvius Challenge The June 2026 breakthrough: The announcement in Naples of new texts, titles, and authors recovered from the scrolls. The day the Herculaneum scrolls began speaking again Nick Tawil: Guest host and head of Infinite Films. Connect with Nick The Scrolls & the Discoveries The Herculaneum library: Roughly 1,800 scrolls carbonized by Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD, the only library from antiquity that survived. Vesuvius Challenge: the scrolls Philodemus, On Gods, Book 8: A title and author read from a sealed scroll, establishing that the work ran to at least eight books. CNN on the discovery The En-Gedi scroll: The burned Torah scroll Brent's team read without opening, containing one of the oldest known copies of the first two chapters of Leviticus in the canonical Masoretic text. Vesuvius Challenge on En-Gedi The $1 million prize: The open competition to fully unroll and read one of the remaining sealed scrolls. Current prizes Films & Coverage Mentioned The Vesuvius Challen…