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I’m at the Olympic Games in Paris, and AI is everywhere

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I’m at the Olympic Games in Paris, and AI is everywhere

At the time of writing this, I’m in Paris. On Saturday, August 3, shortly before watching France’s Teddy Riner secure a second judo gold during the mixed teams event, I watched the Brazilian judo team take on Italy for the Bronze. In a first-point-wins final match to determine which team was going to take the medals home, Brazil’s Rafaela Silva hurled Veronica Toniolo to the ground in just 14 seconds with mathematical precision.

‘Mathematical’ is the operative word there. The Brazilian Olympic Commission is beginning to use a software program called iSports Judo, created by a team at the University of Sao Paulo, to use the statistics from athletes’ fitness tests to automatically generate high-quality performance information, which can be compared with that of other athletes at a glance. 

The software was originally developed to be a ‘scout’ for future talents, according to Brazilian outlets, allowing hopefuls to input their information into the app to help coaches recognize exceptional athletes early on. 

(Image credit: Future / Matt Evans)

This Moneyball-esque look at athletic statistics, now updated with modern technology, reminded me of another app I came across this year. aiScout, the app from ai.io which uses Intel’s incredible AI-led 3D athlete tracking (or 3DAT), does the same scouting job for football. Intel’s 3DAT technology just requires video footage of an athlete performing a fitness test. Using this footage, an AI will automatically generate statistics, assigning numerical scores to stats like ‘explosive power’, ‘coordination’, and ‘energy recoil’, making it much easier for coaches compare the performance of different athletes.

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