Youssef Nader

AI Researcher

Vesuvius Challenge

Youssef is an Egyptian AI researcher and a graduate student at the Freie University in Berlin. He works on the intersection of explainable AI, machine learning, self-supervised learning and swarm intelligence. Youssef enjoys competing in AI challenges tackling different problems, and has won multiple awards in the fields of computer vision and natural language processing. In 2023, Youssef was one of the first people to use AI to read inside a 2000 year old burnt Greek scroll, uncovering 10 letters. Following on with that success he later led the winning team of the Vesuvius Grandprize and was able to recover more than 2000+ letters from inside the carbonized scroll.

What does innovation mean to you?

Innovation means ... treading into unexplored territories, trying new ideas even when they seem unreasonable, accepting failure as part of the process.

What do you believe is the most important capability for companies to thrive in the economy of tomorrow?

I think curiosity and adaptability are the two most crucial traits for tomorrow's economy. Technology is developing really fast, and companies need to be willing to accept that they will have to adapt and adopt new methods and approaches as they come, as will be required by their consumers and also by the competition.

How can we leverage our collective strength to create a more prosperous future?

Open source research and open science allow us to leverage our collective strength by sharing knowledge, accelerating innovation, and creating a more prosperous future.

Describe your project and work and what makes it so innovative?

Using artificial intelligence and training transformers to read ancient scrolls that were charred by a volcano in Herculaneum in 79AD. We are for the first time in history, recovering ink from inside of unopened scrolls and reading columns of text thought to be lost.

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