Google researcher's AI agents did not discover an unknown Maya site, archaeologists say

A Google researcher's team of 48 AI agents flagged a Maya site in Mexico as potentially unregistered, but archaeologists noted the site had already been documented in an academic journal more than a year earlier. Pietro Miotti, who described the work as a personal side project without Google compute or resources, said he checked with Mexico's INAH and later updated his post to credit the earlier work after criticism on social media. Archaeologists including Sarah Parcak and Ivan Šprajc said spotting a site is not the same as discovering it and stressed that peer review and existing research remain essential.