Whether you are pro-AI or anti-AI, you just can’t ignore it because the world and most importantly, the media won’t let you. The last thing we wanted AI to do was to write poems, draw paintings, write screenplays, and make music. These are things that give humans pure joy, a medium to express themselves, to emote. What we want AI to do for us is to take over the tasks that bore us to death like folding clothes, and keeping our plants alive; not stealing our jobs. But what’s happening is…
Google’s AI Ad Faces Backlash
Google’s AI ad campaign for the Paris Olympics 2024 faced a backlash from netizens. In the ad, they showcase a little girl using AI to write a fan letter to her favorite US athlete hurdler and sprinter Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone. The ad titled “Dear Sydney, showed a little girl’s dad saying “Gemini, help my daughter write a letter telling Sydney how inspiring she is.”
Netizens went haywire saying this is the last thing we want for our children. Instead of pouring her heart out and using her emotions and true feelings to write that letter, and learning to write and develop the skill of writing in her formative years, her father is asking for help from Gemini. This overdependence on AI at such a young age will deprive us of originality and may ruin our future generation’s lives by stunting their brain development, mental growth, and creativity. The last thing we want is an iPad kid to become a world leader and rule us. But at the rate with which we are going, it is not far away from our reality. Google has since then taken out this ad from its Olympics campaign after receiving backlash and has since apologized.
The Intel on AI in Sports
The only profession which is safe from AI stealing their job is ‘Sports’. This year the International Olympic Committee (IOC) launched the AI Agenda in partnership with Intel which highlights the many ways that AI can and will be used in the Olympics 2024 to improve the lives of athletes worldwide. This includes increased access to world-class coaching, advances in personalized training, improved injury prevention and recovery, and more accurate judging and refereeing. The technology can spot sporting talent to go on to be the Olympians of the future.
Discovering Olympic Talent
The technology uses AI to gather and analyze a person’s body to recognize strengths and weaknesses to check, out of 12 sports, which sport the participant is best at. The sports include football, sprinting, table tennis, and so on. This custom tech can be used to spot the next big champion across the world and create opportunities for those from developing nations.
An AI chatbot
Intel has created a chatbot for athletes to ask all their questions, such as how to get around Paris, where to eat, and how to get family accreditation. This makes it easier for athletes to navigate through the Olympic administrative hurdles as the answers are given in real-time. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has also introduced an AI-powered tool to monitor social media platforms for signs of abuse and flag messages.
Turbocharge Athlete Performance
Through advanced data analytics AI can provide personalized coaching and create tailor-made training sessions for athletes to help them improve their performance, drive progress, and most importantly prevent injuries. AI-tailored coaching sessions will also help coaches who will now have time to focus on the aspects of performance that technology cannot help with. AI is better at data analysis than humans and can do the major heavy lifting leaving room for coaches to focus on building a relationship with the athletes and building their character and mindset which AI can't do.
Improving Accuracy In Judging & Refereeing
AI has been used to support judges and referees at the Olympic Games since 2018 and is in place for several sporting events in Paris in 2024. Swiss Timing CEO Alain Zobrist said: “AI technology is already being integrated into OMEGA’s timekeeping systems at the Olympic and Paralympic games and allows us to analyze and understand athletic performances much deeper than ever before.”
In conclusion, AI has already begun revolutionizing the sports industry and is helping improve athletic performance, identify up-and-coming talent, and train them to succeed.