For this episode we join Dr Thea Sommerschield from the Department of Classics and Ancient History and Professor Sue Black from the Department of Computer Science at Durham University. This free-flowing conversation brings together Thea’s work on AI and ancient inscriptions, with Sue’s work supporting women in tech and challenging bias in AI. We hear about the very different paths that led them into their research, before the conversation opens out into a fascinating discussion about ancient inscriptions, women in tech, the value of interdisciplinary research, and the importance of using technology in ways that are thoughtful, ethical, and transformative.
Aeneas article (Nature, 2025): https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-025-09292-5
Predicting the Past free online interface: https://predictingthepast.com/ (with links to the teaching syllabus and code base)
Aeneas release blogpost: https://deepmind.google/blog/aeneas-transforms-how-historians-connect-the-past/
Birthday Invitation of Sulpicia Lepidina, one of the earliest known examples of writing in Latin by a woman: https://romaninscriptionsofbritain.org/inscriptions/TabVindol291
Classics and Ancient History at Durham: https://www.durham.ac.uk/departments/academic/classics-ancient-history/
Digital Humanities and Classics at Durham: https://digitalhumanities.webspace.durham.ac.uk/
TechUPWomen: https://www.techup.ac.uk/
TechUPWomen "How far we've come" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iiq4_1N0DjU
AI and Ethics paper: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s43681-024-00641-0