Show HN: HieraticBench – Can AI read ancient Egyptian handwriting? (hieraticbench.vercel.app)

A new project called HieraticBench aims to determine whether AI can read and understand ancient Egyptian hieratic script, the cursive form used for everyday writing in ancient Egypt. In tests with 13 leading AI models, none successfully identified or translated a hieratic sentence written by an Oxford Egyptologist, despite performing well with actual hieratic documents. This stark contrast highlights a significant challenge in AI's ability to read historical scripts: while models can recognize visual styles in context, they struggle with unfamiliar written content that requires deep learning rather than memory recall. The project's implications for the AI and machine learning community are profound, as it underscores the limitations of current language models when faced with niche or underrepresented datasets, such as hieratic. To advance AI's capacity to understand ancient scripts, HieraticBench encourages collaboration with Egyptologists to produce new sealed sentences for training, aiming for models that can read hieratic as fluently as they recognize printed text today. As AI continually evolves, successfully bridging the gap between modern capabilities and ancient writing could pave the way for more sophisticated understanding and preservation of historical languages.