Artificial Intelligence Recreates the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World

Magnificence in the ancient world. Modern architecture doesn't compare.

Would that AI only be used for benign purposes such as this.

Thanks for the glorified cartoons with no basis in history or fact, OP!

Now all we need is a 3D printer!

I had a great Viewmaster set of the seven wonders of the ancient world.

A nude Colossus of Rhodes was featured in one of my 3rd grade textbooks. Kids would giggle at his weiner.

These are all gross exaggerations and idealizations of the real things. Meaningless.

The 8th Wonder was Rocco Siffredi.

Several quibbles.

They've given the Great Pyramid entrances at the base of each of its sides, which the monument did not have. Also, the smooth white limestone casing covered all of the pyramid, not just its capstone. At the top of the capstone was a very small pyramid, either of solid gold or covered with gold leaf, entirely missing today, and also missing in the AI mockup.

The Statue of Zeus at Olympia would not have had a freestanding uplifted arm because it would have broken off under its own weight. Either supports would have been artistically incorporated, or some other arm posture would have been adopted.

Much the same issue exists for the Colossus of Rhodes, even more so. Arms would have to have been close to the body; the one arm said to have held up a torch would have needed to be closer to the statue's center of gravity, almost straight up above the head. Although accounts have said that the Colossus had two separate legs which straddled the harbor, this would seem to have been a fanciful embellishment. Even two articulated legs close together, as depicted in the AI, would have been unlikely, the reason being, again, physics.

They really got carried away with the so-called Hanging Gardens of Babylon, with it being more elaborate than Rivendell in LOTR. The construction would not have employed sculpted stone arch pediments, but mud bricks. And in point of fact, the 'Hanging Gardens' were not in Babylon, built by Nebuchadrezzar II, but in Nineveh, built by Sennacherib centuries earlier, maintained and enlarged by subsequent Assyrian kings.

Well you put AI in its place!

r9 already mentioned most of my misgivings, but I'd also like to point out that there are much better renderings of the Temple of Artemis at Ephesus out there. It surely would not have looked as Roman as it does in that image. One level only, their temples did not look like lavish palaces.

Like r7 said, these are all super exaggerated. A.I. has its place in visualising imaginative worlds, but we have much better (manual) techniques for recreating ancient structures.

R6 - The preferred spelling is w-I-e-n-e-r

Why did they leave the Great Pyramid in its dilapidated state instead of restoring it to its former glory?

Was the statue ofZeus really made of gold and ivory? (Instead of marble)

[quote] Why did they leave the Great Pyramid in its dilapidated state instead of restoring it

Egyptian builders would use the Pyramid as a convenient quarry to source free pre-cut stone. They cared nothing for its historical and cultural significance. This illustrates why mankind needs the British Museum to conserve what indifferent third worlders will not.

R15 - We are all aware of this fact; the same thing happened to the Colosseum in Rome. You didn’t answer the question: Why didn’t they use AI to provide us with a picture of what the Great Pyramid looked like 4,000 years ago?

[quote]Was the statue ofZeus really made of gold and ivory? (Instead of marble)

Yes! Pure chryselephantine.

The temple of Hatshepsut should have been included in wonders of the ancient world because it's an architectural marvel and it has survived for a very long time. I've seen it and I have seen the pyramids. The thing is, I noticed when visiting Luxor Temple and Karnak, that the columns looked very similar to particular styles of Greek columns. Until I realized they had been built many centuries before.

[quote]Several quibbles.

Garbage in, garbage out.

The problem with AI is that it's so inaccurate and superficial, and yet it may well become so pervasive that our entire population will get everything wrong. It reminds me of that old Science Fiction movie The Time Machine, where the guy goes back and discovers an old library with actual books that are turning to dust from disuse.

chryselephantine

Good heavens. How on earth did they mold ivory into the shape of huge human forms? It comes from elephant tusks, not sheets of copper or blocks of marble. And yet sculptors were still working with it in the early 20th century.

It’s not impressive.

The ancients would have been horrified by the lack of color we think they didn’t have.

These places were all very colorful.

Lame. 19th century artistic reconstructions are much much better. The Hanging Gardens look like straight out of Avatar.

Yes, R22, I was reading some history of ancient Greece, and the arguing that went on when the Acropolis was being built because some were calling it "a painted whore" feeling that the colors were so garish. So they were very colorful. In Egypt, some of the tombs interiors were remarkably well preserved and you can tell even after 4 millenia that the colors were vivid and beautiful. Dendara and Nefertari's tomb come to mind.

The Great Pyramid of Giza was built to last, lucky for us.

You know your stuff, R9! No snark, I'm legit impressed.

I’m shocked at how bad these are. I guess our jobs are safe for a while longer.

The Colossus is missing a digit on his left hand.

The Colossus of Rhodes looks so 21st century as if from a Marvel comic book. I doubt the actual statue was so detailed and sexualized.

We actually have almost no idea at all what it looked like, or even its location in the harbor as drawings and renditions of the structure are all from many years after it fell over. How can AI fix that? It is just guessing as we have done for millennia!

[quote]R11: It surely would not have looked as Roman as it does in that image.

I thought so to, but forgot to mention it at R9; too much else to criticize.

I have to come back to the Great Pyramid; it's so awful. The structure looks like it's surrounded by modern streetlamps and electrical lighting. (Were they thinking of Luxor, Las Vegas?) Also, from the way they've visualized the capstone, it's evident they're actually modeling it after the Second Pyramid of Giza, the Pyramid of Khafre, which today still exhibits this feature (its outer limestone casing was removed and repurposed only up to that level). People often mislabel the pyramids, calling the Pyramid of Khafre 'the Great Pyramid.'

▲ I thought so too

I bet the Colossus of Rhodes wasn't much bigger than our Statue of Liberty.

[quote] This illustrates why mankind needs the British Museum to conserve what indifferent third worlders will not.

R15 That was then, this is now.