Commencis AI’s GlyphTrack: Using AI to Rediscover Lost Amazonian Civilizations

As part of OpenAI’s first Kaggle competition — the OpenAI to Z Challenge — the Commencis AI Team built GlyphTrack, an AI-powered system that helps detect these lost sites. Using NASA’s GEDI LiDAR data, elevation maps, and GPT-based analysis, GlyphTrack finds subtle patterns that could reveal ancient settlements buried under the forest canopy.

In just four weeks, we combined satellite data, machine learning, and AI reasoning to pinpoint regions with the highest potential for new discoveries, giving archaeologists a powerful new way to explore the Amazon’s past. Our work earned the Commencis AI Team 2nd place in the OpenAI to Z Challenge, a global competition with over 10,000 participants pushing the boundaries of AI in archaeology.