A “Tricky Dick” Video on the Decipherment of the Indus Script

 

A “Tricky Dick” Video on the Decipherment of the Indus Script

Shrikant G. Talageri 

 

The following video popped up on my youtube screen, and I was intrigued enough to sit through the whole video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u4_-3RIXYC4

The video, uploaded just a few days ago (7 November 2025. Today, at this point of writing, is 10 November 2025), is titled “AI Just Decoded the Lost Language of the Indus Valley – What It Revealed is Shocking”, and the youtube site which uploaded it is called “The Explorer”.

[Incidentally and interestingly, this same site also features a video titled “Eye-Witness of Jesus: Letter of Lentulus Reveals and Describes Jesus in Details to Caesar of Rome!”! ]

 

As I wrote above, I was intrigued enough to see what this “AI” is supposed to have “decoded”. As I myself do not have even the faintest idea of how the Indus Valley (Harappan) script is to be decoded, and would not claim myself to be able to take even the first primary step in this direction, I was really interested in seeing what this video would reveal or claim to reveal. I really feel (in spite of my awareness that AI is more often, and very easily, used as a controlled disinformation tool or weapon to overawe and influence half-witted people – at least when it comes to drawing or giving conclusions on controversial topics which are subjects of diametrically opposed and motivated political views) that if the script is to be conclusively deciphered, it is possible that AI may (a very big may) be able to do it better than an ordinary scholar. [I hope an ordinary scholar proves me wrong].  

But the video left me completely disappointed. The long and rambling video (which, even as it is continuously talking about the Indus script, most of the time shows visuals of inscriptions and texts in every other script in the world) gives a glowing and even gushing description of the greatness of the Indus Civilization in comparison with the other civilizations of the world, and gives equally gushing accounts of the “scientists” of the world apparently congregating together to use AI tools to decode the script, has absolutely nothing concrete to say on the actual Indus script itself. It does not mention a single one of the scientists or scientific papers who/which are supposed to deliver “shocking” conclusions about the decoded script, and nor does it explain the phonetic sound represented by a single letter of the actual Indus script: it just gives a continuous gushing commentary about how the decoded script shows the Indus Civilization to be unique among all the civilizations of the world – even though all these points are already well-known even with the script still undeciphered and un-“decoded”.

The main mystery of the Indus script, like it or not, is not about how it showcases the greatness of the Indus civilization. The great mystery is about the (language-family wise) identification of the language encoded in the script: is the language Dravidian, or Indo-European, or some other known family (Austric, Sumerian, Semitic, Burushaski), or some new and hitherto-unknown and unrecorded “Language X”?

 

Does the video then at least admit that this question is still unknown and unanswered? No, it does not do that either. It follows the tricky tactic of twice (to my count), in the course of the video, hinting that the language shows connections to Dravidian. But gives absolutely no details at all about how the AI “decoding” shows it to be Dravidian: it is simply a game of touch-and-run insinuation or a kind of whispering campaign.

 

If these “AI scientists” have decoded the language to be Dravidian totally without being able to assign a single phonetic value to any Indus symbol, the video certainly expects people to accept this purely on the say-so of this video. And they may not be wrong: there will be countless millions of people (not that countless millions will actually be interested in this topic) who will be completely mesmerized by the idea of “AI decoding”, or predisposed by their political biases, or their ignorance and general indifference, to believe that AI has actually “proved” the Indus language to be Dravidian.

In my opinion, the question (“Indo-European” or “Dravidian” or “Language X”) still remains a mystery, at least so far as decipherment and “decoding” is concerned. Unfortunately such videos, in the name of “AI” only serve to further muddy the already muddy waters.