AI at the Olympics: Organizers reveal plans to protect athletes from online harassment and more

Olympic organizers unveiled their technique Friday to make use of synthetic intelligence in sports activities, becoming a member of the worldwide rush to capitalize on the quickly advancing know-how.

The Worldwide Olympic Committee outlined its agenda for making the most of AI. Officers stated it could possibly be used to assist determine promising athletes, personalize coaching strategies and make the video games fairer by bettering judging.

“At this time we’re making one other step to make sure the distinctiveness of the Olympic Video games and the relevance of sport. To do that, now we have to be leaders of change,” IOC President Thomas Bach stated at a press occasion within the velodrome on the Olympic Park in London, which hosted the summer season video games in 2012.

“We’re decided to use the huge potential of AI in a accountable method,” Bach stated.

The IOC revealed its AI grasp plan because it gears as much as maintain the Paris Olympics, that are set to kick off in just below 100 days.

The IOC’s AI plans additionally embody utilizing the know-how to guard athletes from on-line harassment and to assist broadcasters enhance the viewing expertise for folks watching from house. The IOC earns billions of {dollars} by the sale of broadcast rights for the video games.

Some AI initiatives will probably be rolled out on the Paris video games and the IOC has arrange a working group on the know-how to additional drive its adoption in sport, Bach stated, with out being extra particular.

The native organizers of the Paris video games have sparked controversy with their plans to make use of synthetic intelligence for security, with a video surveillance system that features AI-powered cameras to flag potential safety dangers reminiscent of deserted packages or crowd surges. Digital watchdog teams worry {that a} proposal to legalize good surveillance methods, even when solely quickly, will infringe on privateness, although the French authorities insists the methods received’t use facial recognition know-how.

Requested concerning the considerations, Bach informed reporters it’s as much as the authorities within the host nation, not the IOC, to determine on “one of the best instruments to use to safe the video games.”

“What now we have seen from the French authorities and from the authorities is that the efforts to make sure safety in Paris are actually, on a really extensive scope, very skilled. So now we have all confidence within the French authorities,” he stated.

Skier Lindsey Vonn stated she was envious of the AI-powered instruments that weren’t obtainable when she was beginning out.

Vonn stated again within the day she took notes by hand in her efficiency diary on how totally different skis, boots and the temperature affected her efficiency. These days, tablets are used to immediately crunch way more knowledge, in addition to give a side-by-side video comparability of one of the best racing line. AI can supercharge these analytical instruments, she stated.

“It’s not changing athletes, it’s not changing teaching. However I feel it’s simply one other instrument that can be utilized in a optimistic method to carry out higher,” Vonn stated.

The IOC has partnered with Intel to scout out potential athletes in missed locations. The tech firm took its tools to Senegal, the place they visited 5 villages and analyzed the athletic potential of a thousand youngsters, by measuring how excessive they might soar and how briskly they might react.

Utilizing AI to investigate the outcomes, “we discovered 40 which can be actually promising,” stated Christoph Schell, Intel’s chief business officer.

The shortlisted children’ outcomes have been then run by an algorithm that really helpful what sports activities they’d be good at, he stated.

Olympic officers are additionally conscious of AI dangers. Bach warned towards permitting machines to be the final word arbiter of a younger athlete’s profession. Somebody who’s a “nice athlete in wrestling should nonetheless have the prospect to play tennis and can’t be sorted out” by the algorithms, he stated.

—Kelvin Chan, Related Press enterprise author

Kwiyeon Ha, AP videojournalist, contributed to this report.