AI Animates Last Photographs Taken Inside the World Trade Center Before 9/11
A night-shift electrician named Konstantin Petrov captured a series of interior shots of the WTC’s North Tower months before September 11, and AI was used to turn those stills into moving scenes for the attack’s 25th anniversary.
In the months before the September 11 attacks, night-shift electrician and amateur photographer Konstantin Petrov took hundreds of pictures inside the World Trade Center’s North Tower, documenting vacant offices, kitchens, elevators, stairwells, dining rooms and panoramic city views from more than 1,300 feet above the streets. These images now serve as a unique time capsule of the towers in their final months. For the 25th anniversary of the attacks, a team employed artificial-intelligence algorithms to transform Petrov’s static photographs into moving sequences, offering viewers a new way to experience the interior of the towers as they existed in 2001.
While the motion is generated by AI, the original photographs, the specific locations captured, and the moments recorded are genuine. The initiative underscores the historical significance of Petrov’s archive and demonstrates how AI can revive and reinterpret archival visual material. It also provides a poignant reminder of the world that was lost on September 11, 2001. The project has been shared widely as a tribute and a technological showcase.
Why it matters
It preserves a rare visual record of the Twin Towers and shows how AI can bring historic archives to life.
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