In this year’s games, AI will be used to help both athletes and judges.  

AI is being utilized to analyze and improve athlete performance, define strategies, identify promising athletes, predict victory likelihood, and enhance the precision of judging. It is even being used to protect athletes’ mental health by keeping an eye on online hate. 

Here is a closer look at 5 key applications of AI in the 2024 Olympics: 

  1. Training: AI is being used to provide personalized coaching to athletes by analyzing data from various sources like sensors and smart wearables to measure parameters such as heart rate, lung capacity, and movement. This allows coaches to make real-time, precise adjustments to optimize athlete performance and minimize injuries. AI transforms this raw data into actionable insights, enabling athletes to fine-tune their training regimens and optimize performance. These AI-enabled technologies are facilitating the development of customized training regimens and deeply individualized strategies for success. 
  1. Finding talent:  AI actively identifies promising athletes across the globe and provides them with access to personalized training methods. Video analysis tracks players’ movements and performance, identifying athletes with potential based on their physical attributes, technical skills, and tactical awareness. AI also analyzes large datasets of player data, including statistics, performance metrics, and medical records, actively predicting potential for success and improvement. 
  1. Judging: One key way AI is being used in the Olympic games is through detailed analysis of an athlete’s entire performance. For instance, in gymnastics, the AI-powered Judging Support System will be used on every apparatus in the competition. AI algorithms will provide real-time scoring and feedback in events like gymnastics, diving, and figure skating. This AI-powered analysis during the judging process will help minimize human bias and error. That said, the technology is not designed to fully replace human judges but rather to assist them by providing detailed and precise information. 
  1. Predicting victory likelihood: AI is being used to analyze various factors such as athletes’ performance data, past results, weather conditions, and other relevant information to predict the likelihood of victory for each competitor. This is done through machine learning algorithms that can process and interpret large amounts of data to make accurate predictions. By using AI, Olympic organizers and coaches can make more informed decisions about strategy and tactics, ultimately improving the overall performance of athletes. 
  1. Anti-bullying: At the Paris 2024 Olympics, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) plans to use an AI-powered monitoring system to protect athletes and officials from online abuse on public social media platforms. The system will monitor thousands of accounts across different channels, identify and flag online abuse targeting athletes and officials, and report these accounts for removal to the relevant platforms. This move marks a significant step towards safeguarding the mental well-being of participants. 

While artificial intelligence has many helpful applications in the Olympic games, there have nevertheless been concerns raised about the Olympic Committee’s decision to allow its use.  Despite their general dependability, AI systems are not without error and so the reliability and fairness of AI assisted judging and decision-making is being called into question.  

The way to address these and other concerns around AI is to remember that AI is a tool that humans use, it’s not something that should or can replace humans. AI can streamline mundane tasks and identify patterns in data but it is not yet at a level where it can match human intelligence – our recent study proves this.  

Many of the dangers and limitations of AI can be overcome by simply ensuring human oversight of the outputs of AI and avoiding automated decision making.  Keeping the human in the loop is absolutely essential. The successful integration of AI at the Olympics will depend on how it is applied and how its outputs are managed and received by human users. 

The AI/human partnership can be a powerful one if navigated correctly and it will be exciting to see what its future at the Olympics will look like after its introduction at this year’s games.