Brent Seales - How AI Is Reading the Only Library That Survived Antiquity (Ep. 328)

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 Challenge: The upcoming documentary from Infinite Films and Scott Free, in partnership with Calliope Pictures, narrated by Guy Pearce. Deadline announcement

• Secrets of the Dead: The Herculaneum Scrolls: The PBS episode following Brent inside the Villa of the Papyri. Watch on PBS

• Cost of Glory: The Roman history podcast Brent and Nick reference while discussing what might still be buried. Cost of Glory

• Dead Poets Society: The source of "carpe diem," one of the two ideas Brent would give the world. Dead Poets Society