# Austrian Academy of Science to release Apollo, first advanced Greek language model

Digest AI · Generative AI & Models · published 2026-09-22T09:30:00Z

Canonical: https://digestai.news/story/austrian-academy-of-science-to-release-apollo-first-advanced-greek-lan

## Summary

The Austrian Academy of Science announced that on Wednesday it will release Apollo, the world’s first advanced large language model for Ancient Greek. Developed with French AI lab Mistral and technology services firm Sail Reply, the model was trained on roughly 600 million historical Greek words taken from manuscripts, papyri and inscriptions. Apollo will be offered for free to scholars through a chatbot interface that can suggest statistically likely completions for torn or missing text.

Researchers say the tool could speed up the painstaking work of reconstructing fragmented documents. Professors Stephen Colvin (UCL) and Anna Dolganov (Austrian Academy) note that Apollo can adapt to dialects such as Doric and supplement Homeric Greek. While the model is not expected to overturn broad historical narratives, it may reveal new details about everyday life in antiquity. Critics warn that relying on probabilistic predictions could introduce errors, so Apollo presents multiple word options for human experts to choose from. If successful, the approach could be extended to other ancient languages like Latin or Egyptian.

## Key points

- Apollo was trained on about 600 million ancient Greek words from manuscripts, papyri and inscriptions.
- The model will be free for academics via a chatbot that proposes multiple word options for gaps.
- Developed by the Austrian Academy of Science with Mistral and Sail Reply, it adapts to dialects such as Doric.

## Why it matters

A dedicated Greek LLM gives scholars a powerful tool to accelerate fragment reconstruction, potentially unlocking new historical insights while highlighting the need for human oversight.

## Sources

1. [A New Chatbot Wants to Unlock the Secrets in Tattered Ancient Greek Records](https://wired.com/story/apollo-ai-model-ancient-greek-secrets-papyrus) (Wired AI, 2026-09-22)

## Cite

Digest AI, "Austrian Academy of Science to release Apollo, first advanced Greek language model", 22 September 2026, https://digestai.news/story/austrian-academy-of-science-to-release-apollo-first-advanced-greek-lan

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