Coachella Uses Google DeepMind AI to Test the Future of Live Entertainment

Coachella is turning 1 of the world’s biggest euphony festivals into an AI investigating ground.

The festival collaborated with Google DeepMind during this year’s lawsuit to physique and trial experimental tools designed to alteration however artists make performances and however fans acquisition them.

The caller experiments absorption connected “world models”—AI systems that make interactive integer environments. Coachella’s innovation squad spent the 2026 festival gathering 3 prototypes with Google DeepMind’s Project Genie, the company’s world-model platform.

“We engaged successful this task wherever we're moving with their tools to research what are the ways that these tools tin widen and grow an artist's canvas, springiness them much tools for originative expression, grow creator satellite gathering connected tract and astatine home, and past marque the acquisition much elemental and much amusive for fans,” Ryan Cenicola, Coachella’s innovation accumulation lead, told Decrypt.

A Coachella experimentation utilizing Google DeepMind AI. Image: Coachella

One prototype, called “Turning Performances Into Interactive Experiences,” captures unrecorded shows and rebuilds them arsenic 3D environments that fans tin explore. During the archetypal play of the festival, teams recorded lighting, audio, visuals, and the question of some the assemblage and artists during a Quasar signifier set, past recreated the show successful Unreal Engine.

Coachella said the exertion could yet make “living archives” of performances that fans tin locomotion through, replay from antithetic perspectives, oregon presumption with alternate visuals generated successful existent time.

“There are decidedly ways we’re looking astatine however fans on-site tin prosecute with that contented successful the future,” Cenicola said. “Looking further ahead, with glasses and the emergence of that signifier factor, that’s surely a spot we’re reasoning astir this contented surviving and making it an adjacent much immersive acquisition for fans on-site.”

A 2nd prototype is simply a stage-design instrumentality for artists. The bundle lets performers upload visuals oregon participate prompts to spot however a amusement would look connected a 3D exemplary of Coachella stages astatine antithetic times of time and with antithetic assemblage conditions.  The extremity is to springiness smaller acts entree to accumulation tools typically reserved for artists with larger budgets and teams.

The 3rd task is simply a mobile crippled called Coachella vs. The Game, wherever players power an astronaut and research integer worlds based connected festival artists. The squad compared the thought to the games radical could play earlier visiting a taxable park, giving fans a mode to research the lineup earlier arriving astatine the festival.

“Typically, you're looking astatine six to 12 period improvement timelines to truly propulsion a high-quality experience. And that clip has been shrunk significantly, adjacent conscionable since the opening of this year,” Kevin McMahon, Coachella’s innovation partnerships lead, told Decrypt.

Asked wherefore Coachella chose Google DeepMind implicit rivals similar OpenAI oregon Anthropic, McMahon pointed to the company’s ocular AI tools and existing narration with the festival.

“For us, we unrecorded successful a truly ocular world, and they person the champion ocular models,” helium said. “We enactment with them crossed the festival, from our YouTube livestream, which is portion of a Google relationship. We’ve recovered them to person truly large models that are casual to use, and they’ve been shipping astatine a truly accelerated rate. We’re excited to support exploring with them.”

A Coachella experimentation utilizing Google DeepMind AI. Image: Coachella

The AI projects physique connected years of Coachella investigating caller exertion to grow the festival beyond the lawsuit itself. In 2024, the festival launched Coachella Quests, a crippled connected the Avalanche blockchain that fto attendees implicit challenges and gain perks done NFT stamps. That aforesaid year, Coachella launched Avalanche-based NFT passes and collectibles aft its earlier Solana NFT concern with FTX fell isolated erstwhile the crypto speech collapsed.

“An acquisition similar Coachella Quest was a mode for america to radiance a airy connected things and say, ‘Hey, person you thought astir this?’—without doing it successful a boring paper benignant of way,” McMahon said. “How bash we marque it interactive—a mode to research and observe astatine the festival—and springiness fans a accidental to bump into each different and say, ‘Oh, you were going to spot that happening oregon cod that happening too.’ Those blessed accidents are thing we proceed to get truly affirmative feedback on.”

Coachella has besides invested successful augmented world experiences for livestream viewers. This year’s AR broadcasts included integer effects layered onto performances that were disposable lone to online audiences.

The existent AI projects person not been launched publicly, and stay interior proofs of concept. Cenicola said Coachella is reviewing lessons from this year's festival earlier deciding what could rotation retired successful aboriginal years.

“It's hard close present to enactment a steadfast timeline connected it,” helium said. “We're successful the signifier wherever we're taking each the learnings from these 3 proofs-of-concept that we wrapped up past play and moving with our squad and with DeepMind to recognize what the adjacent steps are.”