Photo Credit: Microsoft
The Vatican has teamed up with Microsoft to unveil a digital tour of St. Peter’s Basilica in an effort to make the monument more accessible and manage visitor flows.
The tour uses artificial intelligence and 400,000 digital photographs, taken with drones, lasers, and cameras over the course of a month when no one was in the Basilica.
The new online tour was announced along with two new on-site exhibits that will be featured in the virtual tour as well.
This new technology uses AI to replicate the Vatican and provide viewers with a way to tour the iconic cathedral without actually being there.
The new platform also features a way to reserve a spot in line to visit the iconic attraction, allowing visitors to avoid the sometimes hours-long wait.
The AI powered tour was developed in collaboration with digital preservation company, Iconem, and uses an astounding 22 petabytes of data. That’s enough to fill five million DVDs.
In scanning the premises, the images have actually helped to identify damage and deterioration to the historic structure of the cathedral, including missing mosaic pieces, and cracks and fissures otherwise invisible to the naked eye.
The new project comes ahead of the Vatican’s 2025 Jubilee, to be presided over by Pope Francis in St. Peter’s Square. This occurs only once every ten years.
In 2025, more than 30 million pilgrims are expected to pass through the basilica’s Holy Door, on top of the 50,000 tourists who visit on an average day.
The Basilica’s announcement of the new digital tour comes after Pope Francis called for the ethical use of AI during his annual World Message of Peace earlier in 2024.
During his press conference with the Microsoft president, the Pontiff praised the way modern technology can spread ancient faith.
“This house of prayer for all peoples has been entrusted to us by those who have preceded us in faith and apostolic ministry,” the Pope said. “Therefore, it is a gift and a task to care for it, in both a spiritual and material sense, even through the latest technologies.”
Microsoft’s president Brad Smith said, “It is literally one of the most technologically advanced and sophisticated projects of its kind that has ever been pursued.”
Microsoft has done similar AI projects at Mont Saint-Michel in France and Ancient Olympia in Greece.
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