To enrich people’s experience of the Holy Year either in Rome or at home, the Vatican has partnered with Microsoft to create an AI-powered “digital twin” of St Peter’s Basilica, offering immersive virtual views, a new app and interactive features. Source: CNS.
On December 1, St Peter’s Basilica will be launching a new website to feature virtual views, streaming services of religious celebrations and podcasts of prayerful meditations, as well as an app that will help visitors with suggested itineraries, audio guides and real-time updates about the lines to the Holy Door and other sites.
In January, students around the world will be able to explore the basilica on Microsoft’s game-based learning platform, Minecraft Education.
The multiple projects use AI technology to help people weave together the historical, artistic and spiritual meanings connected with the world’s largest church, Cardinal Mauro Gambetti, archpriest of the basilica, said at a Vatican news conference on Monday.
The “digital ecosystem,” he said, will accompany visitors and help them have a more spiritual experience.
The cardinal said the idea to create the new services emerged when he and Brad Smith, president of Microsoft, were admiring Michelangelo’s La Pieta statue together in the basilica in 2022 and decided it would be important to share the meaning of these ancient and important works of art in a way that is “understandable and accessible” to more people.
Working with Iconem, a French startup specialising in the digitisation of important cultural sites in 3D, experts used cameras, laser scanners and two drones for one month in 2023 to capture almost half a million high-resolution images of St Peter’s Basilica, Mr Smith said.
The result is viewers can explore the basilica from top to bottom, getting closeup looks even of St Peter’s tomb below, and workers at the basilica can identify previously unseen cracks, missing tiles or other potential repairs needing attention, Mr Smith said.
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Vatican, Microsoft unveil AI-generated ‘digital twin’ of St Peter’s (By Carol Glatz, CNS)
