The Vatican launched new artificial intelligence (AI)-based services for St. Peter’s Basilica on Monday, allowing virtual access to its Renaissance architectural treasures, as well as optimized tours for visitors.
Saint Peter’s Basilica – Vatican. PHOTO Shutterstock
The new experiences were launched before “Holy Year” of the Catholic Church or the Jubilee of 2025, marked every quarter of a century, informs Reuters, quoted by Agerpres.
“Saint Peter is like a starry sky on a summer night: it delights you with its splendor”, said Cardinal Mauro Gambetti, archpriest of Saint Peter’s Basilica, excited that the new instruments will allow a better visualization by acting like a telescope or a spaceship.
A digital replica of the basilica and two AI-based exhibits
The Vatican, in collaboration with technology giant Microsof and Iconem, a company specialized in digitizing heritage sites, has launched a new interactive website, a digital replica of the basilica and two AI-based exhibitions.
About 40,000 – 50,000 people visit the basilica every day.
“A more accessible language for the times we live in”
After the basilica was scanned with the help of drones, cameras and lasers, a 3D model of St. Peter’s Basilica was built. The data was assembled, elaborated and completed with the help of AI algorithms.
Drones that flew over the basilica at night for four weeks took 400,000 photos and collected a volume of data equivalent to a 6-kilometer-high column of DVDs.
“We offer Saint Peter’s Basilica not only to the whole world, but to a new generation, in a language more accessible to the times in which we live”the president of Microsoft, Brad Smith, told reporters.
“Pope Francis: it can be ambivalent, it depends on us”
Pope Francis has acknowledged that AI can expand access to knowledge, but has repeatedly warned that it must be used exclusively in an ethical manner for the benefit of humanity.
“The correct and constructive use of the potential of AI, which is certainly useful but can be ambivalent, depends on us“, he said on Monday, when the project was presented to him.
