On July 30th, the International Olympic Committee released precious footage of the 1924 Paris Olympics for the first time, which was restored to color HD footage using Alibaba Cloud's AI technology, commemorating the return of the Summer Olympics to Paris after a hundred years. In the footage, audiences can vividly experience the intense scenes of the Olympic Games a hundred years ago.
The restored historical footage vividly shows the opening ceremony of the Paris Olympics 100 years ago. Athletics was the focus of the event, and with the help of AI cloud technology, audiences can enjoy the astonishing power, speed, and endurance of the color version of the 1924 Paris Olympic Athletics stars. The footage also shows that in the marathon of the time, athletes drank wine as a supplementary drink during the race.
International Olympic Committee (IOC) President Bach expressed his appreciation for Alibaba Cloud's technological cooperation. He said: Over the past few months, we have been preparing for the Olympic AI agenda. If it were not for Alibaba, there would be no Olympic AI agenda. The project is one of the core progress of the IOC's Olympic AI agenda.
Bach said, we have already seen some achievements in Paris. When I saw Alibaba Cloud's excellent completion of historical footage color restoration, it showed us the pioneering nature of future AI, which will change every aspect of the sports industry.
In the past, the restoration of historical footage required a lot of research, special equipment, and long hours of work to accurately color each frame and person. However, based on deep learning models and combined with the professional knowledge of historians, Alibaba Cloud can understand color, light, and context, making the coloring of footage more accurate and realistic.
In addition to restoring historical footage, Bach said that the cooperation between the IOC and Alibaba Cloud has also created new experiences for global audiences. This year, cloud computing surpassed satellites for the first time as the mainstream broadcasting method for the Paris Olympics. More than two-thirds of the signals were distributed globally by Alibaba Cloud, and a lot of AI technology was used in Olympic broadcasting. This is another major technological advancement since the satellite television broadcast of the 1964 Tokyo Olympics.