Alibaba Cloud’s AI technology brings colors to historical sports moments.
Paris, France, July 24, 2024 — Alibaba Group, a leading e-commerce and technology company and worldwide partner of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), premiered a short film entitled “To the Greatness of Her” this evening. The 8-minute video is dedicated to the evolution of gender equality since the 19th century. Leveraging Alibaba’s Cloud-based Artificial Intelligence, vintage photographs of female athletes’ achievements from past Olympic Games were colorized and restored to be featured in the short film and exhibited at the Alibaba Evening on July 24 in Paris ahead of the Olympic Games Paris 2024 (Paris 2024).
Thomas Bach, President of the International Olympic Committee, said, “To the Greatness of HER highlights the great progress of women in sports throughout history. My heartfelt thanks go to our friends at Alibaba for using AI-powered technology to let the achievements of these women in sports shine through the full spectrum of colors. More importantly, the film allows us to reflect on one of the most important priorities of the Olympic community — empowering women in and through sports.”
“Gender equality is a team sport. We all have a role to play and must lead by example. With this film, Alibaba is leading by example and using its technological expertise to highlight this important topic,” added Bach.
The IOC’s commitment to gender equality has significantly increased female athlete participation; from 2.2% in Paris 1900, when women athletes first competed in the modern Olympics, to 4.4% in Paris 1924, exactly a century ago when the city last hosted the Games, to a notable 50% at the current Olympic Games Paris 2024 — as the IOC has distributed quotas evenly between female and male athletes for the first time.
To commemorate this milestone, Alibaba created a short film entitled: “To the Greatness of HER,” featuring three prominent female athletes — Zhang Shan from China, Kathrine Switzer from the US, and Suzanne Lenglen from France.
(Before restoration)
(After restoration)
Premiered at the Alibaba Evening, the short film employs cloud-based AI technologies to restore old photos from historical archives through critical steps including clarity processing to enhance image resolution and colorizing grayscale images with vibrant colors using advanced AI models.
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