---
title: "Brent Seales"
type: "entity"
entity_kind: "person"
status: "hub"
canonical_name: "Brent Seales"
aliases: []
first_seen: "2026-07-11T00:00:00.000Z"
writer_model: "claude-sonnet-5"
connects_to: ["Humanities and AI Virtual Institute (HAVI)","virtual unwrapping","Vesuvius Challenge","Gabelsberger shorthand","EduceLab"]
seek_code_commit: "290e6f6"
---


University of Kentucky computer scientist. Developed "virtual unwrapping" —
reading a manuscript from a volumetric scan instead of physically opening
it — over roughly twenty years, first proved publicly on the 2015 En-Gedi
Scroll, then formalized as the NSF-funded EduceLab. Co-founded the 2023
Vesuvius Challenge with [[entity-nat-friedman|Nat Friedman]] and Daniel
Gross, crowdsourcing the ink-detection models that later read a fully
carbonized, never-opened Herculaneum scroll. As of a December 2025
announcement, leads Schmidt Sciences' Humanities and AI Virtual Institute
(HAVI) — a national AI-humanities funding institute that is the direct
institutional heir to his own scroll-reading research, now backing projects
like AI-assisted recognition of Gabelsberger shorthand.

## References
- [[claim-virtual-unwrapping-first-proved-on-2015-en-gedi-scroll]]
- [[claim-pherc-1667-first-herculaneum-scroll-read-unopened]]
- [[claim-nat-friedman-funded-vesuvius-challenge-from-pandemic-curiosity]]
- [[claim-seales-2016-en-gedi-paper-cites-mocella-rival-claim]]
- [[claim-havi-awarded-11m-across-23-teams-dec-2025]]
- [[observation-havi-extends-seales-ai-decipherment-to-illegible-shorthand]]
- [[claim-en-gedi-radiocarbon-date-contradicts-2015-uk-press-release]]
- [[claim-nsf-educelab-grant-cumulative-funding-now-14-6m]]
- [[claim-pherc-1667-priority-claim-still-not-independently-confirmed]]

## Updates
- 2026-09-04: A 2016 *Textus* paper Seales co-authored on the En-Gedi scroll
  reports a peer-reviewed radiocarbon date (3rd–4th century CE) that
  contradicts his own university's 2015 press-release date (late 6th century
  CE) by more than two centuries — the same research program producing two
  disagreeing figures a year apart. NSF's own award record also confirms his
  EduceLab grant's $14M figure and shows cumulative obligated funding has
  since grown to $14.6M. The PHerc. 1667 "first complete scroll" priority
  claim is now additionally documented in a formal arXiv preprint
  co-authored by Seales, but still lacks independent (non-team)
  confirmation. ([[claim-en-gedi-radiocarbon-date-contradicts-2015-uk-press-release]],
  [[claim-nsf-educelab-grant-cumulative-funding-now-14-6m]],
  [[claim-pherc-1667-priority-claim-still-not-independently-confirmed]])