Please ensure Javascript is enabled for purposes of website accessibility
Vatican, Microsoft Create AI-Generated St. Peter's Basilica to Allow Virtual Visits, Log Damage
gvw_ap_news
By Associated Press
Published 1 week ago on
November 11, 2024

Vatican and Microsoft unveil AI-powered digital twin of St. Peter's Basilica for virtual exploration and preservation. (AP/Gregorio Borgia)

Share

Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

VATICAN CITY — The Vatican and Microsoft on Monday unveiled a digital twin of St. Peter’s Basilica that uses artificial intelligence to explore one of the world’s most important monument’s while helping the Holy See manage visitor flows and identify conservation problems.

Using 400,000 high-resolution digital photographs, taken with drones, cameras and lasers over four weeks when no one was in the basilica, the digital replica is going online alongside two new on-site exhibits to provide visitors — real and virtual — with an interactive experience.

“It is literally one of the most technologically advanced and sophisticated projects of its kind that has ever been pursued,” Microsoft’s president Brad Smith told a Vatican press conference.

Preparing for 2025 Jubilee

The project has been launched ahead of the Vatican’s 2025 Jubilee, a holy year in which more than 30 million pilgrims are expected to pass through the basilica’s Holy Door, on top of the 50,000 who visit on a normal day.

“Everyone, really everyone should feel welcome in this great house,” Pope Francis told Smith and members of the project’s development teams at an audience Monday.

The digital platform allows visitors to reserve entry times to the basilica, a novelty for one of the world’s most visited monuments that regularly has an hours-long line of tourists waiting to get in.

Creating a Digital Twin

But the heart of the project is the creation of a digital twin of St. Peter’s Basilica through advanced photogrammetry and artificial intelligence that allows anyone to “visit” the church and learn about its history.

The ultra-precise 3D replica, developed in collaboration with digital preservation company Iconem, incorporates 22 petabytes of data — enough to fill five million DVDs — Smith said.

The images have already identified structural damage and signs of deterioration, such as missing mosaic pieces, cracks and fissures invisible to the naked eye, with a speed and precision far beyond human capabilities.

Pope Francis Calls for Ethical AI Use

Francis has called for the ethical use of AI and used his annual World Message of Peace this year to urge an international treaty to regulate it, arguing that technology lacking human values of compassion, mercy, morality and forgiveness were too great.

On Monday, he thanked the Microsoft team and basilica workers responsible for the project and marveled at how modern technology was helping spread an ancient faith and preserve a piece of world patrimony, which celebrates the 400th anniversary of its consecration in 2026.

“This house of prayer for all peoples has been entrusted to us by those who have preceded us in faith and apostolic ministry,” he told Smith and the delegation. “Therefore, it is a gift and a task to care for it, in both a spiritual and material sense, even through the latest technologies.”

Smith declined to give a price tag for Microsoft’s investment in the project, saying only it was “substantial” and was borne of Francis’ initiative in 2018 to bring tech companies together to promote ethnically minded AI.

He said Microsoft had done similar AI projects at Mont Saint-Michel in France and Ancient Olympia, in Greece.

RELATED TOPICS:

DON'T MISS

What to Know About Pam Bondi, Trump’s New Pick for Attorney General

DON'T MISS

North Korean Leader Says Past Diplomacy Only Confirmed US Hostility

DON'T MISS

Democrats Strike Deal to Get More Biden Judges Confirmed Before Congress Adjourns

DON'T MISS

Newsom Gaslights on Potential Gas Price Hikes in Fresno Visit

DON'T MISS

Automakers to Trump: Please Require Us to Sell Electric Vehicles

DON'T MISS

President Biden Welcomes 2024 NBA Champion Boston Celtics to White House

DON'T MISS

Ohtani Makes History With 3rd MVP, Judge Claims 2nd AL Honor

DON'T MISS

Trump Chooses Pam Bondi for Attorney General Pick After Gaetz Withdraws

DON'T MISS

Average Rate on a 30-Year Mortgage in the US Rises to Highest Level Since July

DON'T MISS

Cutting in Line? American Airlines’ New Boarding Tech Might Stop You at Now Over 100 Airports

UP NEXT

North Korean Leader Says Past Diplomacy Only Confirmed US Hostility

UP NEXT

Democrats Strike Deal to Get More Biden Judges Confirmed Before Congress Adjourns

UP NEXT

Newsom Gaslights on Potential Gas Price Hikes in Fresno Visit

UP NEXT

Automakers to Trump: Please Require Us to Sell Electric Vehicles

UP NEXT

President Biden Welcomes 2024 NBA Champion Boston Celtics to White House

UP NEXT

Ohtani Makes History With 3rd MVP, Judge Claims 2nd AL Honor

UP NEXT

Trump Chooses Pam Bondi for Attorney General Pick After Gaetz Withdraws

UP NEXT

Average Rate on a 30-Year Mortgage in the US Rises to Highest Level Since July

UP NEXT

Cutting in Line? American Airlines’ New Boarding Tech Might Stop You at Now Over 100 Airports

UP NEXT

MLB Will Test Robot Umpires at 13 Spring Training Ballparks Hosting 19 Teams

Newsom Gaslights on Potential Gas Price Hikes in Fresno Visit

6 hours ago

Automakers to Trump: Please Require Us to Sell Electric Vehicles

7 hours ago

President Biden Welcomes 2024 NBA Champion Boston Celtics to White House

7 hours ago

Ohtani Makes History With 3rd MVP, Judge Claims 2nd AL Honor

7 hours ago

Trump Chooses Pam Bondi for Attorney General Pick After Gaetz Withdraws

7 hours ago

Average Rate on a 30-Year Mortgage in the US Rises to Highest Level Since July

8 hours ago

Cutting in Line? American Airlines’ New Boarding Tech Might Stop You at Now Over 100 Airports

8 hours ago

MLB Will Test Robot Umpires at 13 Spring Training Ballparks Hosting 19 Teams

8 hours ago

Death Toll in Gaza From Israel-Hamas War Passes 44,000, Palestinian Officials Say

9 hours ago

Jussie Smollett’s Conviction in 2019 Attack on Himself Is Overturned

9 hours ago

What to Know About Pam Bondi, Trump’s New Pick for Attorney General

NEW YORK — Pam Bondi, the former Florida attorney general, was chosen Thursday by Donald Trump to serve as U.S. attorney general hours after...

4 hours ago

4 hours ago

What to Know About Pam Bondi, Trump’s New Pick for Attorney General

5 hours ago

North Korean Leader Says Past Diplomacy Only Confirmed US Hostility

5 hours ago

Democrats Strike Deal to Get More Biden Judges Confirmed Before Congress Adjourns

6 hours ago

Newsom Gaslights on Potential Gas Price Hikes in Fresno Visit

President Joe Biden with Mary Barra, the chief executive of General Motors, at the Detroit Auto Show, Sept. 14, 2022. President-elect Donald Trump has promised to erase the Biden administration’s tailpipe rules designed to get carmakers to produce electric vehicles, but most U.S. automakers want to keep them. (Doug Mills/The New York Times)
7 hours ago

Automakers to Trump: Please Require Us to Sell Electric Vehicles

7 hours ago

President Biden Welcomes 2024 NBA Champion Boston Celtics to White House

7 hours ago

Ohtani Makes History With 3rd MVP, Judge Claims 2nd AL Honor

Former Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi, speaks before Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump arrives to speak at a campaign rally at First Horizon Coliseum, Saturday, Nov. 2, 2024, in Greensboro, NC. (AP/Alex Brandon)
7 hours ago

Trump Chooses Pam Bondi for Attorney General Pick After Gaetz Withdraws

Help continue the work that gets you the news that matters most.

Search

Send this to a friend