Last week I was at a great conference in Faro, dedicated to African Archaeology. I also attended a session where I got really inspiring input for new possibilities using AI.

Robert Stark spoke about “Digital Frontiers: An AI Assisted Approach to Research Return” – he stressed the potential of using the NotebookLM platform developed by Google Labs. There, short AI generated podcasts can be created from uploaded documents.

The result is a concise and captivating discourse in laymen’s terms that elucidates the core of the uploaded documents. Whilst such podcasts are undoubtedly entertaining and accessible to a wide audience, Robert also emphasised that there are several limitations that must be given due consideration, and that caution is also required.

Nevertheless, I think the idea of using such a tool to disseminate research results, especially for Sudan, but also for the Ankh-Hor project, is a very good one.

It is with great pleasure that I hereby present the initial tests from a recently published text (Julia Budka, Variability in Late Egyptian funerary culture – new evidence for rare papyrus practices from TT 414, in: Balázs J. Irsay-Nagy & Kata Jasper (eds), From the Horizon of Thebes. Studies in Honour of Tamás A. Bács, Wallasey 2025, 9‒19). The creation of both an English and an Arabic podcast has been accomplished through the utilisation of Google Notebook.

Please check it out! As this is a new application, all feedback and comments are greatly appreciated, many thanks.

In relation to the subject, we will provide further information quite soon. My colleague, Annik Wüthrich, is currently engaged in the analysis of these compelling fragments of a Book of the Dead from TT 414 which are discussed in my article and the AI generated podcasts. She has already obtained significant new results, the details of which will be communicated in due course.