How AI is unlocking ancient texts — and could rewrite history
“From deciphering burnt Roman scrolls to reading crumbling cuneiform tablets, neural networks could give researchers more data than they’ve had in centuries.”
As ominous as the threat of generative AI replacing writers is, there are some kinds of things that AI can be legitimately helpful with. This article reports on how AI has helped researchers read fragments of scorched papyrus scrolls left in the wake of the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 CE.
Forget Goodreads—Here’s How ChatGPT Is Transforming My Reading Life
Kourtney Borman is a contributing writer for tech site Make Use Of. Here she explains how ChatGPT has helped her “discover the perfect book [to read next] without getting overwhelmed by decision fatigue.” She talks about how ChatGPT carries on a conversation with her in a process that allows her to focus and refine her query; as a result, ChatGPT “introduces me to underrated gems or authors I hadn’t thought to explore, gently nudging me toward genres or styles I might not typically gravitate toward. It also personalizes recommendations based on detailed conversations about my tastes.”
I have not yet felt any inclination to try AI on my own, but, intellectually, I can see how it might work well for something like this. What do you think? If you’ve consulted an AI app, I’d be interested in hearing about your experiences and what types of tasks you think it performs best.
It’s Time to Treat Reading Like Working Out
“Like lacing up running shoes, cracking open a book may not be something you’re always eager to do. But regularly reading will improve your life.”
Abdullah Shihipar points out the benefits of regular reading and argues that it’s an activity we should prioritize, like exercising, because it’s good for us.
Are men’s reading habits truly a national crisis?
“The questionable statistic at the heart of the “men don’t read fiction” discourse.”
The photo illustrating the Slate article linked above shows an older man holding a coffee cup in his right hand while reading an open book held in his left hand. This article examines the veracity of a claim commonly seen around the book-related blogosphere that men don’t read much any more—and that they particularly don’t read much fiction. Writer Constance Grady finds that the common U.S. statistic—that women read 80% of books sold while men read a mere 20%—is unsupported by any reliable data source.
Five Books That Offer Readers Intellectual Exercise
I found the premise of this article intriguing: “Each of these titles exercises a different kind of reading muscle, so that you can choose the one that will push you most.”
Editors at Science Journal Resign En Masse Over Bad Use of AI, High Fees
Wired reports that all but one member on the editorial board of Elsevier’s Journal of Human Evolution resigned recently. Many of the board members’ concerns revolve around the scientific publishing company’s use of AI.
The Plagiarism Plot Is Having a Moment. Copy That.
“You could assemble an entire library of contemporary work fixated on literary imitation, appropriation and theft.”
Emily Eakin, a senior editor at the New York Times Book Review, discusses the current spate of literary works dealing with authors’ theft of other writers’ story ideas. But all art, since time immemorial, has dealt with the same ideas that other authors have written about: “When it comes to plot, we’re all plagiarists. Or, if you prefer, deepfakers.”
Writing as Transformation
“I think my life didn’t seem my life until I started to write,” poet Louise Glück tells us.
This was not writing as rhetoric or catharsis. This was writing as transformation (or this is what I wanted it to be). I wanted to turn experience, often disappointment or hurt, into an externalized form that, in its accuracy and beauty, would both separate me from the experience and redeem it.
© 2025 by Mary Daniels Brown
As far as “Plagiarism Plot,” how does quantify plots benefit the writer or the reader?