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Actors Bert Lahr (1895-1967), Jack Haley (1897-1979), Ray Bolger (1904-1987), Judy Garland (1922-1969) and Margaret Hamilton (1902-1985) in costume during a scene from the film ‘The Wizard of Oz’, 1939. (Photo by Silver Screen Collection/Getty Images) Getty Images An AI-altered version of The Wizard of Oz created for the Las Vegas Sphere has ignited backlash online, with film fans describing the changes as “vandalism.” As generative AI slowly creeps its way into the film industry, one tendril at a time, the alteration of an iconic film struck many commentators as incredibly invasive. What Is The AI-Enhanced Version Of ‘The Wizard Of Oz’? In April, Warner Bros. announced that an altered version of The Wizard of Oz (1939) would play inside the Las Vegas Sphere, with the help of Google’s engineers—alterations to the film are estimated to have cost $80 million dollars. The Las Vegas Sphere is something of an absurd object, even for Vegas, a gargantuan metal dome wrapped in LED screens. Surreal images of the Sphere regularly go viral on social media (the Sphere’s transformation into a giant emoji is particularly popular). The interior of the Sphere offers an unusually immersive experience for viewers, featuring a curved 160,000-square-foot screen, towering over a 17,600-seat theater. Usually, the Sphere is limited to showing films shot specifically for its giant screen, but in order to bring The Wizard of Oz to the Sphere, AI was used to expand and alter the original film. Google’s engineers worked on expanding the aspect ratio, smoothing out the film grain and even adding new background details. Rather than multiplying the existing pixels on screen, Google’s generative AI tools created new pixels to increase the definition and scale of the film. While the AI-altered version of the film exists only to be screened in the Las Vegas…

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Filed under: News - @ July 30, 2025 11:28 pm