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Historians now have a powerful new ally in their quest to understand the past: Aeneas, an AI-powered tool developed by Google DeepMind. This innovative software is designed to decipher ancient Latin inscriptions, offering unprecedented assistance in determining the date, origin, and meaning of weathered stone engravings. Building on the success of its predecessor, Ithaca (which focused on Greek text), Aeneas leverages partial transcriptions and scanned images, cross-referencing them against a vast database of nearly 150,000 inscriptions from across the ancient world.

A validation study, published in *Nature*, pitted Aeneas against 23 historians working with previously dated inscriptions. The results were compelling: Aeneas spurred new research ideas for 90% of the inscriptions and significantly improved the accuracy of origin determinations. A successful test on the Monumentum Ancyranum in Ankara, Turkey, further demonstrated the AI’s capabilities.

Google DeepMind has released Aeneas as an open-source tool, making it freely available for educational purposes. The company is actively collaborating with Belgian schools to integrate Aeneas into history curricula, with broader applications envisioned for museums and archaeological sites. This technology promises to democratize access to ancient knowledge and unlock new insights into the Latin-speaking world.