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How the Olympic AI agenda will shape the future after Paris 2024?

The Olympic Games represent the pinnacle of any athlete’s career and will always be the primary competition for numerous reasons. However, what happens when AI intervenes in organisation, logistics, data collection, event broadcasting, and the sustainability of the competition?

The Olympic AI agenda, launched by the International Olympic Committee, aims to enhance the overall experience for all participants. Paris hosts the 33rd global showcase from 26 July to 11 August, and it is evident that AI is just beginning its revolution in sports. Despite many sceptics, this article demystifies the agenda and highlights the advantages and disadvantages that could significantly influence future developments.

The integration of AI into the Olympics not only seeks to improve the efficiency and accuracy of event management but also aims to elevate the overall quality of the competition. By leveraging advanced technologies, the IOC hopes to create a more engaging and fair experience for athletes, coaches, and fans alike. This initiative marks a significant step forward in the modernisation of the Olympics, ensuring that it remains the premier sporting event in an increasingly digital world.

Injury prevention, motion analysis, and health advice for athletes

Among the many aspects AI will address in the future, injury reduction and faster recovery for athletes are likely the most important. These systems will help identify various weaknesses and strengths, aiding coaches in better preparing their competitors for crucial matches.

Cameras will predominantly cover the fields and provide data during matches, which is crucial for athletes’ endurance. Interestingly, for some analyses, experts will need nothing more than a smartphone.

AI’s role in injury prevention extends beyond immediate physical health, as it also contributes to long-term athlete welfare. By monitoring training loads and biomechanical patterns, AI can alert coaches and medical teams to potential overuse injuries before they become serious. This proactive approach helps maintain peak performance levels while reducing downtime due to injuries, ultimately extending athletes’ careers and enhancing their overall well-being.

Event organisation to ensure adequate rest for athletes

Schedules at major competitions often change due to weather issues or logistical errors. One of the goals of the Olympic AI agenda is to facilitate event preparation months in advance for seamless operation. These systems can anticipate potential problems before the competition starts, minimising errors.

AI can also assist in optimising transportation schedules, accommodation arrangements, and training facilities, ensuring that athletes have the best possible conditions for preparation and recovery. By automating these logistical aspects, the IOC can focus more on the athletes’ needs, reducing stress and allowing them to concentrate fully on their performance. This holistic approach to event management aims to create a more supportive environment for all participants.

Enhancing fan engagement

Sport is played for the fans, so they must not be excluded from this revolutionary process. The Olympic AI agenda aims to give fans a more significant role than ever through personalised content, live statistics, and other features via official apps, enhancing their enjoyment of their favourite competitors’ matches.

Recent research indicates that over 55 per cent of fans support the AI agenda, believing it will greatly improve the development of sports and competition quality.

Additionally, AI can personalise fan experiences by offering customised viewing options and interactive features. Fans could receive tailored content based on their preferences, including highlight reels, player statistics, and behind-the-scenes insights. By integrating social media and real-time feedback, the AI-driven platforms can create a more immersive and engaging experience, making the fans feel more connected to the action and their favourite athletes.

Helping the referees during competition

VAR was introduced in football a few years ago, reducing errors during matches. The Olympic AI agenda will similarly improve assistance to referees in other sports. Special emphasis is placed on gymnastics, where movements will be analysed in minute detail, providing almost perfect analysis to referees for decision-making.

Numerous obstacles will undoubtedly arise before the system reaches optimal condition, but it will simplify the work of referees, fans, and especially competitors, explaining the reasons for decisions in the given moment.

AI’s involvement in officiating also includes the potential to standardise and improve the accuracy of scoring systems across various sports. By reducing human error and bias, AI can ensure that all athletes are judged fairly and consistently, enhancing the integrity of the competition. This technological advancement is particularly crucial in sports with subjective scoring elements, where even minor discrepancies can significantly impact the outcomes.

Live event broadcasting and tracking

Fans often miss something interesting during broadcasts. AI will play a crucial role, making it easier for fans to review key moments as competitions unfold. AI commentators are increasingly mentioned for following less popular sports, gathering data, and providing more information to fans who previously struggled to keep up with the Olympic Games’ pace. Multi-language broadcast options and clear analysis will enhance the overall experience, starting from Paris, through Los Angeles 2028, Brisbane 2032, and beyond.

Paris 2024 Olympics Logo

The integration of AI in broadcasting can also improve the accessibility of Olympic events. Enhanced captioning, audio descriptions, and real-time translations can make the games more inclusive for a global audience. AI-driven analytics can provide deeper insights into the events, helping fans understand complex strategies and techniques, thus broadening the appeal of various sports and attracting new audiences.

Athlete security

Athletes need rest, peace, and focus before major events to compete for medals. Potential cyber-attacks in Paris have been a concern, addressed by the French Prime Minister. The Olympic AI agenda aims to develop systems that detect unusual activities during the tournament, ensuring athletes’ security.

AI’s role in security extends beyond cyber threats. It includes monitoring physical security by analysing crowd behaviour, identifying potential safety hazards, and ensuring swift responses to any incidents. These comprehensive security measures aim to create a safe and secure environment, allowing athletes to focus on their performance without concerns about their safety or privacy.

What can we expect?

Given AI’s integral role in recent years, it is hard to believe it will not permeate all aspects, including sports. From athlete injury prevention to logistical solutions aiming to reduce waste, resource consumption, and other key factors for better-organised Games, AI will play a significant role in future major events. Additionally, with the primary goal of maintaining peace and stability for both athletes and fans, this agenda has full support from its developers. Paris 2024 serves as a general rehearsal for what lies ahead, and the outcome will be known once the last medals are awarded on 11 August.

The success of the AI agenda in Paris will likely set the stage for future advancements and innovations in subsequent Olympic Games. As AI technologies evolve, they will continue to refine and enhance various aspects of the Games, ensuring they remain at the top of global sports events. The potential for AI to revolutionise the Olympics is vast, promising a more efficient, engaging, and fair competition for everyone involved.

Robot revolution begins: Strider set to transform safety, Oxford announced

Oxford Dynamics, based in Harwell, Oxfordshire, is developing a robot named Strider to operate in hazardous environments, such as chemical, biological, or nuclear incidents. The company has secured a £1m contract with the Ministry of Defence to design and supply this advanced robot by September.

Strider is equipped to handle tasks that are dangerous for humans, like retrieving contaminated objects and performing semi-autonomous activities. The robot is designed to navigate difficult terrains using infra-red, radar, and lidar systems, making it highly versatile in various scenarios, including those similar to the Novichok attack in Salisbury.

Mike Lawton, a director at Oxford Dynamics, envisions building thousands of Strider robots to benefit global safety. He emphasizes the importance of deploying machines instead of humans in life-threatening situations. The company also plans to enhance Strider with AVIS AI software, inspired by JARVIS from the Iron Man films, to further improve its capabilities.

Founder Shefali Sharma sees potential for adapting the technology to submarines and fighter jets, aiming to get these innovations into the hands of those who need them most. The initiative has been praised by Defra, highlighting the rapid progress from concept to a highly capable platform.

Alliant Energy signs power supply deals with multiple data centres

Alliant Energy has secured several power supply agreements with data centres in Iowa and Wisconsin, as confirmed during a recent post-earnings call. The rise in popularity of AI tools like OpenAI’s ChatGPT has spurred the demand for high-performance data centres, necessitating substantial electricity to process large volumes of data.

The company has been actively working to attract new customers in both states, successfully signing multiple deals with data centres. These agreements highlight Alliant Energy’s strategic efforts to expand its customer base amidst the growing data demands driven by advanced AI technologies.

Despite these new deals, Alliant Energy reported a decline in second-quarter profit, impacted by a settlement agreement related to its Interstate Power and Light unit’s retail electric rate review. This led to a pre-tax non-cash charge of $60 million in the second quarter.

The company’s quarterly adjusted profit for its utilities and corporate services segment fell by 13.8%, equating to 56 cents per share, compared to the previous year. Overall profit for the quarter ended June 30 was $87 million, down from $160 million a year earlier.

Meta negotiates celebrity voices for AI

According to the New York Times, Meta is negotiating with actors such as Awkwafina, Judi Dench and influencers to use their voices for its MetaAI digital assistant. The social media giant is also in talks with comedian Keegan-Michael Key and other celebrities, with Hollywood’s top talent agencies involved in the negotiations.

On Wednesday, Meta announced its commitment to significant spending on AI infrastructure. Like many tech companies, Meta has invested billions in its data centres to leverage the generative AI boom.

While it’s unclear which celebrities might finalise deals, reports suggest Meta could pay millions in fees to secure their voices. Meta did not comment on these discussions.

AI music faces legal challenges

AI-generated music faces strong opposition from musicians and major record labels over concerns about copyright infringement. Grammy-nominated artist Tift Merritt and other prominent musicians have criticised AI music platforms like Udio for producing imitations of their work without permission. Merritt argues that these AI-generated songs are not transformative but amount to theft, harming creativity and human artists.

Major record labels, including Sony, Universal, and Warner Music, have taken legal action against AI companies like Udio and Suno. These lawsuits claim that the companies have used copyrighted recordings to train their systems without proper authorisation, thus creating unfair competition by flooding the market with cheap imitations. The labels argue that such practices drain revenue from real artists and violate copyright laws.

The AI companies defend their technology, asserting that their systems do not infringe on copyrights and that their practices fall under ‘fair use.’ They liken the backlash to past industry fears over new technologies like synthesisers and drum machines. However, the record labels maintain that AI systems misuse copyrighted material to mimic famous artists without appropriate licenses, including Mariah Carey and Bruce Springsteen.

Why does this matter?

These legal battles echo other high-profile copyright cases involving generative AI, such as those against chatbots like OpenAI’s ChatGPT. The outcome of these cases could set significant precedents for using AI in creative industries, with courts needing to address whether AI’s use of copyrighted material constitutes fair use or infringement.

Google withdraws AI Olympics ad after backlash

After facing criticism for its portrayal of AI, Google has withdrawn its controversial ad from the Olympics. The ad featured a father using Google’s Gemini AI chatbot to help his daughter write a fan letter to Olympic athlete Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone, which many viewers felt undermined the child’s creativity by replacing it with AI-generated text.

Initially, Google defended the ad, asserting that it demonstrated how Gemini could provide a helpful starting point for writing. However, following widespread feedback, the company decided to pull the ad from its rotation. That move highlights ongoing concerns about AI potentially displacing creative jobs, similar to the backlash faced by Apple earlier this year for a similar ad.

The ad’s removal marks a notable misstep for Google, which aims to position Gemini as a key competitor to OpenAI’s ChatGPT and integrate AI across its products. The incident also underscores broader fears about AI’s impact on creative professions.

Google and Character.AI enter AI licensing agreement

Startup Character.AI has entered into a non-exclusive licensing agreement with Google, allowing the tech giant to use its large language model technology. As part of the deal, Character.AI co-founders Noam Shazeer and Daniel De Freitas, former Google employees, will rejoin Google, specifically its DeepMind research team.

Character.AI will receive additional funding from Google, though the exact amount has not been disclosed. Dominic Perella, the startup’s general counsel, will serve as interim CEO. The agreement follows similar moves by Microsoft and Amazon, who have also acquired AI talent from startups to strengthen their AI capabilities.

The deal comes amid regulatory scrutiny in the US and Europe over how major tech companies consolidate AI resources. Character.AI previously raised $193 million in venture capital and discussed securing more funding from Google.

Nvidia AI chip release could be postponed

Design flaws could delay the launch of Nvidia’s upcoming AI chips by three months or more, according to tech publication The Information. That delay could impact major customers like Meta Platforms, Google, and Microsoft, which have collectively ordered tens of billions of dollars worth of chips.

In March, Nvidia introduced its Blackwell chip series as the successor to the Grace Hopper Superchip, designed for generative AI applications. Despite the reported setback, a Nvidia spokesperson stated that demand for the Hopper chip remains strong, with broad sampling of the Blackwell chips already underway and production expected to ramp up in the year’s second half.

Microsoft declined to comment further, while Meta and Google have not responded. According to sources cited by The Information, Nvidia reportedly informed Microsoft and another major cloud service provider of the delay earlier this week.

AI app to provide beachgoers with sea condition updates

Beachgoers in the UK can now access the SeaCheck app for real-time updates on sea conditions at Boscombe Beach in Dorset. Created by the Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole (BCP) Council, the app delivers details on sea temperature, wind speed, and wave height. Utilising AI, it provides the latest data to help users make informed choices about swimming, paddling, or surfing.

Currently in a pilot phase until September, the app’s effectiveness will be assessed for a potential wider release. Additionally, AI will soon be able to detect harmful bacteria levels using information from buoys near Bournemouth and Boscombe piers.

Millie Earl, leader of the BCP Council, highlighted the app’s innovation, noting its use of AI and real-time data to give the public valuable insights into sea conditions and water quality.

Why does this matter?

The innovation exemplifies how technology can be leveraged to improve public services and safety. It allows individuals to make informed decisions about activities like swimming, paddling, or surfing, potentially reducing risks associated with adverse weather or water conditions. The app’s future capability to detect harmful bacteria levels can further protect public health.

AI technology to take over Taco Bell drive-thrus

Taco Bell is expanding AI voice technology in its drive-thrus to hundreds of US locations by the end of this year, according to parent company Yum! Brands. Customers at these locations may soon interact with a computer instead of a human when placing their orders, a move aimed at freeing up employees for other tasks and improving sales.

The expansion follows Taco Bell’s successful testing of AI at 100 locations across 13 states, which reportedly led to greater order accuracy, happier employees, and shorter wait times. This contrasts McDonald’s, which recently abandoned similar AI technology after customer complaints about incorrect orders.

‘Yum! Brands’ chief innovation officer, Lawrence Kim, expressed confidence in their approach, which involved two years of testing and improvements. Kim assured that AI would not replace human jobs but enhance the work experience by allowing employees to focus on priority tasks. He also highlighted the technology’s potential for broader applications across other Yum! Brands chains, including Pizza Hut, KFC, and The Habit Burger Grill.