Ethan Mollick floats funding AI to unlock the Oxyrhynchus Papyri backlog
emollick · x · 2026-11-01
Ethan Mollick suggests funding projects that use AI to clear long-standing translation backlogs, arguing modern models can already do a reasonable first pass at interpretation and significance, not just translation. He points to the Oxyrhynchus Papyri at Oxford — the world's largest papyrus collection (Greek texts from the 2nd century BCE to 7th century CE, plus Latin, Demotic, Coptic and Arabic), still being catalogued and deciphered since its 1896–1907 excavation.
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