VATICAN CITY – The Vatican and Microsoft unveiled on Monday a digital twin of St. Peter’s Basilica who uses artificial intelligence to explore one of the world’s most important monuments, while helping the Holy See manage visitor flows and identify conservation issues.

Using 400,000 high-resolution digital photos taken with drones, cameras and lasers over four weeks when no one was inside the basilica, the digital replica is available online alongside two new on-site exhibits to give visitors — real and virtual — an interactive experience.

“It’s literally one of the most technologically advanced and sophisticated projects of its kind that have ever been pursued,” Microsoft president Brad Smith said at a news conference in the Vatican.

The project was launched before the Vatican one Jubilee 2025a holy year in which more than 30 million pilgrims are expected to pass through the basilica’s Holy Door, on top of the 50,000 who visit on a normal day.

“Everyone, really everyone should feel welcome in this great house,” Pope Francis told Smith and members of the project’s development teams in the audience Monday.

The digital platform allows visitors to book entry times to the basilica, a first for one of the the most visited monuments in the world which regularly has a queue of tourists waiting to enter.

But the heart of the project is the creation of a digital twin of St. Peter’s Basilica through advanced photogrammetry and artificial intelligence that allows anyone to “visit” the church and learn about its history.

The ultra-precise 3D replica, developed in collaboration with digital preservation company Iconem, incorporates 22 petabytes of data — enough to fill five million DVDs, Smith said.

The images have already identified structural damage and signs of deterioration, such as missing mosaic pieces, cracks and fissures invisible to the naked eye, with speed and accuracy far beyond human capabilities.

Francis called for the ethical use of artificial intelligence and used his annual World Peace Message to urge a international treaty to regulate itarguing that technology devoid of the human values ​​of compassion, mercy, morality and forgiveness was too great.

On Monday, he thanked the Microsoft team and basilica workers responsible for the project and marveled at how modern technology has helped spread an ancient faith and preserve a world heritage site that celebrates 400 years since its dedication in 2026 .

“This house of prayer for all peoples was entrusted to us by those who preceded us in faith and apostolic ministry,” he told Smith and the delegation. “Therefore, it is a gift and a task to take care of it, both spiritually and materially, even through the latest technologies.”

Smith declined to put a price tag on Microsoft’s investment in the project, saying only that it is “substantial” and was born out of Francis’ 2018 initiative to bring tech companies together to advance ethnically minded AI.

He said Microsoft has done similar AI projects at Mont Saint-Michel in France and ancient Olympia in Greece.

___

Associated Press religion coverage receives support through AP collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from the Lilly Endowment Inc. AP is solely responsible for this content.