Paris 2024 will bring AI to the Olympic start line

When the 2024 Olympic Games begin, the world's best athletes will float down the Seine and walk under the shadow of the Eiffel Tower for the 33rd running of the centuries-old competition. Supporting their push for the podium will be a more modern player, entrusted to the skilled hands of coaches, athletes and spectators. artificial intelligence.

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) released its “Olympic AI Agenda” earlier this year, which it described as “a holistic approach to exploring the vast potential of AI while mitigating its risks.” The agenda lays out a list of forward-looking goals, including optimizing the games, discovering talent, and “reducing human bias,” many of which are being tested for the first time in Paris.

Intel, a partner of the Olympic Games since 2017, is the 5G, process and AI platform partner for the Games, and the AI ​​platform title will be more important than ever at the 2024 Olympics. Over the past five years, the company has built an established lineup of hardware and software products to support the IOC's vision of incorporating AI into sport.

Sarah Vickers, head of Intel's Olympic and Paralympic programs, told Mashable that she sees AI having the biggest impact on the Olympics in areas such as event operations, the data-hungry world of broadcasting, and the fan experience itself.

“The Olympic ecosystem has been tough for the last few years,” Vickers said outside the company's on-site AI lab in Paris. “If you think about it now, all the dynamics of the traditional games are coming back: fans in the stands, lots of people moving around, a whole bunch of operational challenges. The other thing is that the expectations of users and athletes have changed; they're used to having information at their fingertips. Now is the perfect time to demonstrate how we're using AI everywhere.”

Intel isn't the only company looking to make Olympic dreams come true through AI. On Monday, Google, the U.S. National Team and NBCUniversal announced Official Partnership has appointed Google as the “official search AI partner” of the tech giant's US team. The deal will see Google's AI services integrated into NBC's live coverage, game commentary and user Olympic search.

IOC is accelerating its AI game during a period of rapid growth across the technology industry. Historic audience recovery And, more subtly, as well as cost savings, even they need to consider the broader impact of AI. Technically speaking During the podcast, IOC Chief Information and Technology Officer Ilario Corna said the IOC is serious about trust as much as it is about innovation, and may soon be building its own “OlympicGPT.”

As the IOC and its partners dive headfirst into AI, many of the big changes to the Games may go unnoticed to spectators working behind the scenes at the world's most historic sporting event.

AI is contributing to the digitalization of competition

Intel has led the Olympic Games' growing technology investments over the years, including the Beijing 2022 Olympic Games opening ceremony show featuring hundreds of Intel premium drones. Those Games also featured artificial intelligence platforms. But Paris will mark the first time many of Intel's technologies will be deployed at scale.

For example, generative AI will appear for the first time in the hands of athletes, far from the spectators, as part of the Olympics' Athlete365 app. The latest IOC Assistant chatbot, powered by Intel's Gaudi 2 generative AI platform, can answer participants' questions about the match and the rules. Meanwhile, machine learning is being used to create a safer environment for athletes. Both the IOC and Intel have praised the new AI-enhanced technology used to detect cyberattacks and online harassment aimed at athletes from online hecklers, an issue highlighted by Simon Biles' outspoken comments. Conversations about mental health Following the 2020 Olympics.

Speaking at the IOC's AI agenda launch, US skier Lindsey Vonn told attendees that this could be life-changing: “The fact that AI will be able to take down comments in real time and not only that, but also help prosecute people… is huge, because I think it changes the dynamic of social media.”

The IOC's larger AI plans include providing platform support to anti-doping organizations and educating athletes on health, safety, and technology. Intel's computer vision and other data visualization technologies can also provide teams with individualized performance analytics to help build better and safer recovery plans and predict potential injuries, Corna explained. Plus, they can help with coaching, training, and improved judging that many argue could lead to medal wins.

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AI is finding ways to make games more accessible

AI and AR are also helping to assist guests and athletes with disabilities. Intel is introducing new wayfinding technology powered by on-site LiDAR devices and its OpenVINO technology to provide real-time, turn-by-turn indoor navigation for blind and low vision visitors. This builds on Intel's current partnership with the company on indoor navigation systems. Good MapIntel AI technology used at the Olympics is also supporting athletes at the Paralympics, and Vickers and his colleagues see future potential for AI support for quick translation and accessibility needs in the field.

AI is also now being used to level the playing field for Olympic hopefuls through AI-assisted scouting. The technology, called 3D Athlete Tracking (3DAT), captures an athlete's computer vision data and processes it on Intel's AI platform to generate a 3D biomechanics report. The IOC has been testing it in areas that have historically lacked resources and funding, such as athletes in Senegal.

“The potential of introducing AI into sport represents a groundbreaking opportunity for the global adoption of sport,” the IOC wrote in announcing this year's AI agenda.

AI leads Olympics into data-enhanced future

Advances in AI are bringing the Olympics to parity with other disciplines. Vickers hailed the use of AI to create highly customized highlight reels, selected and edited based on viewers' own preferences and interests, as one of the most important ways AI can revolutionize the Olympics, especially as it mitigates immediate speed and access issues for broadcasters and meets the growing desire for personalization among AI advocates.

Here too, there is potential to be an industry game changer: Intel Deep Learning Boost is creating the Olympics' first end-to-end 8K live streaming experience for online viewers, putting massive datasets at the disposal of reporters and broadcast teams in real time, while Intel volumetric capture technology is literally changing the way athletes will appear on screen in the future.

Intel is providing a 360-degree 3D image generation studio set up in the Olympic Village that can scan an athlete's likeness and render a 3D version of them. Not only will this be a fun AI-powered joke for athletes to send back home, but it's also the most likely way we'll engage with holograms on live TV.

“AI's experience will not change the core of the sport, the athletes.”

“We can film the athletes in a 3D studio and send that out anywhere in the world,” Vickers explains. “We can create a virtual broadcast studio in the U.S., India or anywhere in the world, and it will look like the athletes are on stage with the presenter. It will look like they're standing side by side and it will look authentic.”

The IOC sees these digital advances as a cost-saving measure to make the Olympics and its athletes more accessible to everyone, while also reducing the “broadcast footprint” – the environmental impact of large-scale live broadcasts — ignoring, of course, the hotly debated environmental impact of AI.

As viewers focus on the medal count, a new partnership between Team USA and Google will integrate Olympic information into the search platform's new AI summary and generative AI assistant, Google Gemini, and actor and “chief superfan commentator” Leslie Jones will use Gemini during her coverage of the Olympics on NBC's Peacock.

The widespread use of human-like AI assistants also ties into the tradition of Olympic commentators in other ways: As announced last month, NBC will offer customized 10-minute Olympic updates for Peacock users. AI voice of famous sportscaster Al MichaelsAs NBC reiterated in a subsequent press conference, viewers have nothing to worry about in the age of non-consensual deepfakes: Michaels fully consented to the use of her voice and likeness.

AI is also being put to use before, during and after the Games. New highly detailed 3D models of Olympic facilities (called “digital twins”) allow broadcasters, event planners and teams to navigate the Olympic experience in advance and virtually design entire coverage plans. This makes it easier for attendees and logistics coordinators who are considering accessibility to imagine potential navigation obstacles. Future work could include models that make real-time adjustments for people with disabilities, Vickers explained.

The list isn’t over yet: AI is also helping to digitize the Olympic archives, ensuring Olympic memorabilia is preserved forever in a virtual repository.

“The AI ​​experience doesn't change the core of the sport, the athletes,” Vickers said. “We're trying to improve the experience for everyone, whether they're athletes or fans, but it doesn't change the enjoyment of the sport, it just makes it better.”

AI in the Olympics raises more questions about security and privacy

But concerns remain about introducing AI into the Olympics, with the French government announcing plans to use private AI technology to “carry out extensive and persistent surveillance before, during and after the Olympics.” Fast Company As the Olympic stage expands, security risks are reportedly on the rise. In April, the French Prime Minister's Office negotiated a decree granting the government expanded powers to eavesdrop, collect geolocation, communications and computer data, and to collect more video and audio data from civilians. This will bolster a widespread, experimental video surveillance system that uses AI-enabled cameras to warn of potential security risks.

Privacy advocates have also raised concerns about widespread surveillance and digital security risks. 2022 FIFA World CupVickers said the French government's AI plans won't overlap with what's happening with the Olympics, and Intel's Responsible AI team is working with the Olympic planning committee to navigate the world of data privacy laws and internal security to ensure its systems don't create controversy, he said.

AI is all around us, as the Paris Games' multifaceted investment makes clear. “AI is everywhere,” Vickers agrees. “But athletes are at the heart of what we do, and that will continue to be the case.”