{"id":229298,"date":"2025-10-28T02:45:19","date_gmt":"2025-10-28T02:45:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/229298\/"},"modified":"2025-10-28T02:45:19","modified_gmt":"2025-10-28T02:45:19","slug":"elon-musk-says-ai-research-into-ancient-rome-will-rewrite-history","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/229298\/","title":{"rendered":"Elon Musk says AI research into ancient Rome will \u2018rewrite history\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

Whether likening his social media \u00adplatform to a colosseum battleground or challenging another tech magnate to a gladiatorial duel, Elon Musk has long made clear his fascination with the \u00adancient world order.<\/p>\n

Now the world\u2019s richest man, who once called himself the \u201cImperator of Mars\u201d, says he is \u201crewriting the history books\u201d by financing a new age of \u00addata-driven research in archaeology, powered by artificial intelligence.<\/p>\n

Musk spoke on Friday at the award ceremony for the annual Expandere Conscientiae Lumen prize at the seat of the mayor of Rome, on the Capitoline Hill that was once home to the Temple of Jupiter, the most sacred place in \u00adancient Rome. Eleven grants were given to innovative archaeological \u00adprojects harnessing digital technology.<\/p>\n

The initiative, organised by the \u00adAmerican Institute for Roman Culture, aims to improve understanding of \u00adGreco-Roman culture. This year\u2019s is funded with $1 million from Musk\u2019s \u00adUS-based charitable foundation<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am interested in history and Rome constitutes a large part of the history of western civilisation,\u201d Musk said via video link at the ceremony. AI, he said, would fill knowledge gaps by writing \u201ca new history book based entirely on ancient material and archaeology\u201d.<\/p>\n

The winning projects showed that the technology was about far more than writing texts. One used advanced drone fleets and photogrammetry powered by AI to capture high-resolution aerial \u00addata of Greco-Roman heritage in \u00adJordan \u2014 from the grand colonnades of Jerash to the Roman amphitheatre in Amman \u2014 to preserve intricate \u00adarchitectural details in danger of being lost to climate change in \u201cstunning\u201d 3D models.<\/p>\n

Another initiative aimed to reconstruct the supply chains of \u00adancient Rome by analysing the geological \u201cfingerprints\u201d of pigments used in the frescoes of Pompeii, the city buried by Mount Vesuvius in AD 79, and through simulations of ancient sea routes, integrating historical weather patterns and ship performance data.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Secrets of a Stoic revealed as long-lost Vesuvius scroll decoded<\/a><\/p>\n

Five of the winning projects were Italian, and others were based in \u00adMorocco, Tunisia and Albania.<\/p>\n

Musk, who in 2023 challenged his rival tech billionaire Mark Zuckerberg to a cage fight at an ancient site in Italy, before the culture minister ruled out Rome, was accused of making a fascist gesture<\/a> at a rally celebrating President Trump\u2019s second inauguration. Some commenters on X, Musk\u2019s social media platform, \u00adinsisted it was a \u201cRoman \u00adsalute\u201d.<\/p>\n

His latest comments coincide with an era of dawning digital experimentation at Italian heritage sites.<\/p>\n

In Naples, researchers are using x-ray imaging and computer software to \u201cdigitally unroll\u201d Roman papyrus<\/a> carbonised at Herculaneum by the \u00adVesuvius eruption. The project, which has shown that one text was written by the Epicurean philosopher Philodemus and revealed the location of Plato\u2019s \u00adgarden grave, was awarded \u20ac2 million by Musk this year.<\/p>\n

\"Herculaneum<\/p>\n

Herculaneum scrolls at the National Library of Naples<\/p>\n

TOM KINGTON FOR THE TIMES<\/p>\n

In Pompeii, researchers are using drone-mounted lasers, engineering simulations and 3D renderings to reconstruct the lost upper floors and observation towers of ancient domuses used for stargazing at banquets. \u201cWe can reconstruct experiences, spaces and social dynamics of the time,\u201d \u00adGabriel Zuchtriegel, director general of the \u00adarchaeological park in Pompeii, said.<\/p>\n

Marta Modolo, an archaeology \u00adspecialist in AI at Milan University, who is analysing thousands of Neolithic animal bones from central Italy, said digital technology could slash research time from years to months and reduce the risk of human error.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Whether likening his social media \u00adplatform to a colosseum battleground or challenging another tech magnate to a gladiatorial…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":229299,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[554,733,4308,86,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-229298","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-artificial-intelligence","tag-ai","tag-artificial-intelligence","tag-artificialintelligence","tag-technology","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/229298","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=229298"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/229298\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/229299"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=229298"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=229298"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=229298"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}