Coachella utilized Google DeepMind’s AI technology during its 2026 festival to test experimental tools designed to reshape live entertainment.
Working with DeepMind’s Project Genie, the festival’s innovation team developed three prototypes focused on 'world models'—AI systems capable of generating interactive digital environments, according to Decrypt.
One prototype, titled 'Turning Performances Into Interactive Experiences,' recreates live shows as 3D environments. During the festival's first weekend, teams recorded lighting, audio, visuals, and the movement of both the crowd and artists at the Quasar stage to reconstruct the set within Unreal Engine.
Coachella stated this technology could eventually produce 'living archives' where fans walk through past performances from various perspectives or view them with real-time alternate visuals.
“Looking further ahead, with glasses and the emergence of that form factor, that’s certainly a place we’re thinking about this content living and making it an even more immersive experience for fans on-site,” Ryan Cenicola, Coachella’s innovation production lead, told Decrypt.
Democratizing production through AI
A second prototype serves as a stage-design tool for artists. The software allows performers to upload visuals or use prompts to preview how shows will appear on 3D models of Coachella stages under different lighting and crowd conditions.
The goal is to provide smaller acts with access to high-end production tools usually reserved for major headliners with massive budgets.
The third project is a mobile game, 'Coachella vs. The Game,' where players navigate digital worlds based on festival artists. Kevin McMahon, Coachella’s innovation partnerships lead, noted that the development timeline for such high-quality experiences has shrunk significantly.
“Typically, you're looking at six to 12 month development timelines to really push a high-quality experience. And that time has been shrunk significantly, even just since the beginning of this year,” McMahon told Decrypt.
Coachella chose Google DeepMind over competitors like OpenAI or Anthropic due to the company's visual capabilities and existing ties to the festival.
“For us, we live in a really visual world, and they have the best visual models,” McMahon said, citing the festival's existing YouTube livestream relationship with Google.
These AI experiments follow previous technological ventures by the festival, including the launch of Coachella Quests on the Avalanche blockchain and augmented reality broadcasts for online viewers.
These current AI projects remain internal proofs-of-concept. Cenicola stated the team is currently reviewing lessons from the 2026 festival before determining which tools will move toward a public rollout.
