The Vatican launched new services created by artificial intelligence for St. Peter’s Basilica and enabled virtual access to its architectural treasures from the Renaissance era. The new experiences were presented on Monday, in time for the celebration of the Holy Year, or the jubilee of the Catholic Church in 2025, which is celebrated every quarter of a century.
“St. Peter’s is like the starry sky on a summer night: you are mesmerized by its brilliance,” said Cardinal Mauro Gambetti and pointed out that the new tools will behave like a telescope or a spaceship.
In cooperation with the technology company Microsoft and Icon, a company specializing in the digitization of heritage sites, the Vatican has launched a new interactive website, a digital replica of the basilica and two exhibitions created by artificial intelligence.
The basilica is visited daily by 40,000 to 50,000 people. The 3D model of the basilica was created by scanning it using drones, cameras and lasers. Artificial intelligence algorithms assembled, elaborated and finalized the data.
The drones filmed nightly for four weeks, taking over 400,000 photos and collecting data equivalent to a DVD shelf six kilometers high.
“We bring St. Peter not only to the world, but also to a new generation of people, in a language that is more accessible to the times we live in,” Microsoft president Brad Smith told reporters.
Pope Francis admitted that artificial intelligence can expand access to knowledge, but he repeatedly warned that it must be used exclusively in an ethical way, for the benefit of humanity.
“The correct and constructive use of the potential (artificial intelligence), which is useful but can be ambivalent, depends on us,” Franjo said on Monday when the project was presented to him.