AI brings 1924 Paris Games back to life
Olympic fans can now travel back in time to catch a glimpse of what the Paris Games were like a century ago, thanks to new AI-powered cloud tech that can bring historic moments back to life.  Alibaba Cloud, a partner of the International Olympic Committee, is supporting the Games through cloud computing and e-commerce platforms. Chris Tung, president of Alibaba Group’s strategic development, said the tech giant is using generative AI to restore videos and colourise moments from when the French capital last hosted the Olympics in 1924. “By doing that, we'll be able to represent the glorious moments of Olympic Games in the past and be able to come up with concepts and stories to spread Olympic spirit and culture,” he said.  Tung said that cloud infrastructure has overtaken satellites as the primary source of television broadcasts for the first time. “It has been more than 50 years that we watched exciting Olympic games on TV through satellite,” he told RTHK. “For Paris 2024, this will be the first time that cloud-based broadcasting exceeds the volume of satellite-based [broadcasts]. So it's a great building block from game to game, from flame to flame that we're doing.” Alibaba Cloud has also built a data management platform for all Olympic venues, which they use to monitor and analyse energy consumption and carbon emission data, in line with the organisers’ goal of making the Paris Games the greenest ever. Regarding privacy concerns, Tung said all visitors’ personal data will be removed after 24 hours, while audio clips and videos will only be kept for less than a month. Meanwhile, mainland EV maker Xpeng has decided to make its debut on the French market in Paris to make the most of the 60th anniversary of diplomatic ties between China and France. “Now you are with the Olympics, this is the most beautiful city in the world. That was the perfect platform to launch such a premium brand,” said Thomas Rodier, head of marketing and communication at Xpeng France. "We are very invested in leading EV technology, but also autonomous driving technologies where we are [a] leader in China, and soon, I hope in Europe," he said.  Rodier also said provisional EU duties of up to 38 percent on Chinese EV imports will not affect Xpeng's business in France.