The Associated Press reported on 11vaticanCity State and U.S. technology companiesMicrosoftOn the same day, it was announced that a digital version of St. Peter's Basilica, "replicated" by AI, was officially launched under the cooperation between the two parties.
The "St. Peter's Basilica" experience is the result of a partnership between the Vatican, Iconem (a startup specializing in cultural heritage digitization services), and Microsoft, and is designed to provide an unprecedented opportunity to explore Vatican City's most famous church. Visitors will be able to experience the cathedral through two AI-driven immersive exhibitions and an interactive website.
The project was launched to celebrate the Jubilee Year in 2025 and aims to make the iconic building and artwork more accessible to more people around the world. The official website states, "'Pétros enì' exhibition will provide an immersive, live experience of a lifetime for the 35 million pilgrims in Rome, and will help to immerse St. Peter's Basilica for the more than one billion Catholics who are unable to travel to Rome. "
at present,Microsoft work or school account required to access AI version of St. Peter's Basilica, but access is expected to expand soon.
Iconem, a company that specializes in digital preservation, is said to have created an extremely realistic 3D replica of St. Peter's Basilica in just one month using AI and advanced photogrammetry (which uses 2D images to create 3D models).
It is understood thatIconem used more than 400,000 high-resolution images and scanned the entire church using drones, cameras and lasersAll of the data was backed up to Microsoft's Azure cloud platform. The company then created an "ultra-accurate 3D model, or adigital twinThe AI-generated images use Iconem's photogrammetric data to enhance the visualization of the Cathedral's interior and exterior views, enabling visitors to explore every detail from anywhere in the world."
Microsoft didn't just provide the Azure cloud platform, the company was at the heart of the AI technology Iconem used to reconstruct St. Peter's Basilica. The website adds, "Microsoft's AI for Good lab contributed advanced tools that optimized the digital twin with millimeter-level accuracy and used AI to help detect and map structural vulnerabilities such as cracks and missing mosaic tiles. The Vatican oversaw the entire collaborative process to ensure the permanent preservation of St. Peter's Basilica as a culturally, spiritually and historically significant site."