How is technology being used to preserve endangered cultures?

The answer

Technology is revolutionizing cultural preservation on multiple fronts. Google's Endangered Languages Project documents over 3,400 at-risk languages through video, audio, and text. AI language models are being trained on recordings of dying languages - in 2023, researchers created speech recognition for Seneca, an Iroquois language with fewer than 100 fluent speakers. The CyArk foundation has produced millimeter-accurate 3D scans of over 200 heritage sites, including Pompeii, Angkor Wat, and Mount Rushmore, creating permanent digital records. After Notre-Dame's 2019 fire, historian Andrew Tallon's laser scans proved invaluable for reconstruction. Virtual reality recreations of destroyed sites like Palmyra in Syria allow cultural access despite physical destruction. The Smithsonian has digitized 4.5 million artifacts. DNA analysis of ancient remains is reconstructing migration patterns and cultural interactions previously invisible to archaeology.