Google announced that it will use artificial intelligence tools to edit films that will be shown at The Sphere in Las Vegas.
This summer, The Sphere will present the experience The Wizard of Oz at Sphere, using Google’s AI tools to display the classic The Wizard of Oz on its enormous screen.
“The power of generative AI, combined with Google’s infrastructure and expertise, is helping us achieve something extraordinary,” said Jim Dolan, Chairman and CEO of Sphere Entertainment, in a press statement.
“We needed a partner who could push the boundaries alongside our teams at Sphere Studios and Magnopus, and Google was the only company equipped to take on the challenge on the world’s highest resolution LED screen.”
We’re working with @SphereVegas on a new AI technology partnership to help bring the groundbreaking The Wizard of Oz at Sphere to life using #generativeAI.
Take a look; you’re not in Kansas or Las Vegas anymore ↓ pic.twitter.com/koMu17rRvD
— Google Cloud (@googlecloud) April 9, 2025
This isn’t the first time The Sphere has shown films on its giant screen. However, according to a report from The Wall Street Journal, editing the 1939 film to fit onto a 170-million-pixel screen is quite a task, and that’s where the partnership with Google comes in.
“Very, very, very big and very, very difficult. There are scenes where the scarecrow’s nose is like 10 pixels,” said Steven Hickson, research director of Google‘s AI foundation, according to The Wall Street Journal.
While AI technology for upscaling old films has been used before, Google‘s project has sparked controversy. According to the report, the idea also involves using AI to create parts of scenes that cannot be seen in the original film, due to the limitations of frames at the time.
In addition to expanding the background of a scene, the tool would also add characters and other objects into the image, based on what the AI believes could be there, which could compromise the original vision of the filmmakers.
Photo and video: X @googlecloud. This content was created with the help of AI and reviewed by the editorial team.
