AI translated 5 thousand years old alphabet
The new AI program was created by a group of archaeologists and computer scientists. And it is specifically designed to translate the 'Akkadian' language contained in the 'Cuneiform' type of manuscript tablets.
Some of these alphabets are more than two and a half thousand years before Christ. Tech site PC Gamer called it 'Super Google Translate'.
AI is a type of software that is able to learn about things, reason and infer their possible meanings. As a result, this system can play an important role in observing the beginnings of civilization. According to the researchers, it could also become an "excellent tool" in translating various ancient or dead languages.
Akkadian was the language spoken in parts of Mesopotamia, a region that is now part of modern Iraq. Despite the millions of clay tablets found there, most of them could not be translated due to the limited number of experts in the Akkadian alphabet.
In a research paper published in the scientific journal 'PNAS Nexus', researchers claim that AI has achieved 97 percent accuracy in translating Akkadian language manuscripts into Latin. And it is easier than translating into English language because of the relatively complex sentence formation process.
AI has shown good performance in translating subjects such as royal edicts or texts written by scholars. However, when translating literary texts in this language, it shows 'illusory' translations, which do not match the original text.
There are also hopes that AI will one day be able to translate other lost languages as well. Its ability to learn by adapting to the complexity of writing will "give us more knowledge about the ancient world," PC Gamer said in the report.
However, there is a long way to go. Because, English is still difficult to understand by various artificial intelligence systems.Â
