Be the Screener
In the Nazca desert, people scraped pictures into the ground two thousand years ago. Most are small and faint. In 2022 an AI flagged 47,410 places worth a look — and then people had to look. This is that job.
1 · Thirty-six tiles, one figure
Each tile is a patch of desert the machine flagged. One of them holds a faint drawing — a llama, a person or a bird made of lighter ground. The rest are tracks, stones and shadows. Click a tile to look closer. Find the figure.
Click a tile to see it up close.
The tiles are simulated, not aerial photographs: a drawing in pale lines on darker stony ground, with decoys of the kind real screeners face. In the actual survey, people processed “an average of 36 AI-model suggestions to find one promising candidate” — and a promising candidate still had to be walked to.
2 · From 47,410 suggestions to 303 figures
Bars on a log scale. The 1,309 promising candidates were ranked; 341 locations were visited in a six-month field season, and many promising candidates were not visited that season. The work: 1,200 hours screening at the screen, 1,440 hours walking the desert.
3 · Who found the 303?
“The remaining 59 were found during the field survey without any help from AI.”
Walking to the machine’s suggestions put people in places they would not otherwise have gone. Their eyes did the rest.
4 · Twice as many figures, a new question answered
With nearly twice as many figures on the map, the team could compare the two kinds — and they turned out to be for different people.
Small relief figures
- About 9 metres across
- 81.6% people, llamas, heads — things shaped by people
- About 43 metres from ancient walking trails
- Likely made and viewed by individuals or small groups
Giant line figures
- Large: the famous hummingbird, monkey and others
- 64% wild animals
- Near the network of straight ceremonial lines
- Likely built and used by the community for ritual
The interpretation is the survey authors’. Before the AI-assisted count it rested on 380 small figures; after it, on 683.
A century of looking
- 500 BC – 500 ADThe figures are made by moving dark stones to reveal lighter ground.
- 1927Toribio Mejía Xesspe spots the lines while hiking. In Maria Reiche’s era about 30 figures are found on foot.
- 1994The lines become a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
- 2019Yamagata University and IBM Japan announce 143 new geoglyphs found with help from AI.
- By 2022Satellites, drones and early AI have brought the count of figures past 400.
- 2024The survey paper: 303 new figures in six months, from 47,410 machine suggestions.
- Nov 2025More than 500 found with AI, and over 600 candidates still to check.