Austrian Academy of Sciences is developing LLM to read papyri (www.oeaw.ac.at)

The Austrian Academy of Sciences (OeAW) is partnering with Mistral AI and Sail Reply to develop "Apollo," a groundbreaking Large Language Model (LLM) specifically for Ancient Greek. This innovative tool aims to revolutionize research on ancient texts by enabling advanced searching and automatic text restoration of countless undeciphered papyri and inscriptions. By significantly reducing the time required to interpret these texts—from years to mere hours—Apollo will open the doors to an expansive body of historical literature, including approximately one million unread Greek papyri worldwide. Led by Anna Dolganov, an expert in ancient history and papyrology, the construction of Apollo is a significant milestone for both the AI and humanities communities. The LLM is trained on an extensive digital corpus of around 600 million words derived from historical Greek texts, ensuring high-quality scientific output and contextual integrity. As emphasized by OeAW President Heinz Faßmann, this collaboration exemplifies how artificial intelligence can enhance our understanding of fragmentary ancient texts, thus enriching our knowledge of shared history while adhering to stringent European data protection standards. Apollo not only represents a leap forward in the application of AI to historical linguistics but also sets the stage for broader research possibilities in the study of antiquity.