With the Olympic Games Paris 2024 and Paralympics only a few months away, the IOC has unveiled its “AI agenda” for the games, which promise to be the most technologically-influenced event ever.
IOC President Thomas Bach has introduced a host of new AI-powered services and tools that will make the Olympic Games Paris 2024 more effective and efficient.
Spanning from social media policing to athlete training to broadcasting, AI is set to play a huge role in the Olympic Games Paris 2024, which start on July 26.
IOC AI agenda
“Today, we are making another step to ensure the uniqueness of the Olympic Games, and the relevance of sport – and to do this, we have to be leaders of change, and not the object of change,” Bach noted at the IOC AI Agenda launch event in London.
“With the ever accelerating development of digital technology, and in particular AI, we are again at a crossroads of change,” he added, noting that this would be the first such occasion where an overall strategy for the usage of AI at a major sporting event has been created.
Bach was keen to note that the sporting world fortunately does not really have to confront what he called, “the existential question” facing other sectors of society of whether AI will replace human roles, noting, “in sport, the performance will always have to be delivered by the athlete.”
Instead, this means the IOC and the sporting world as a whole can concentrate on the potential of AI to support the athlete.
Intel is once again playing a key role in helping advance these AI capabilities as a worldwide partner for the IOC, working with the organizers to make the games more engaging for fans across the world.
This includes a new immersive sports experience on the ground at a number of Olympic venues in Paris where fans can see which Olympic athlete their performance matches.
Powered by AI applications trained on Intel’s Gaudi accelerators and running on the company’s Xeon processors, which feature built-in AI acceleration, including Intel’s OpenVINO, AI Platform Experience, fans will be able to see how technology and AI can benefit athletes looking to reach the highest level.
The company is also helping preserve and continue the legacy of the Olympic Games by transforming archive videos into 3D digital artifacts that can be accessed in the Olympic Museum by fans of all ages. Using a solution developed by Intel’s Emergent AI Lab, video is transformed using neural object cloning so that fans can get what feels like a true “hands-on” experience.
Finally, Intel hardware will play a crucial role in helping the IOC broadcast efforts – with Xeon-powered broadcast servers encoding and compressing the live TV signal at 8K/60FPS/HDR in a matter of milliseconds. This high-quality feed can then be sent all over the world in seconds, allowing for livestreaming at a better level than ever before.
“The heart of AI is compute,” Christoph Schell, EVP and CCO, Intel said at the launch event, “and Intel is bringing AI everywhere.”
Bach noted that the technology offered opportunities and risks, but that the IOC was dedicated to embracing the full potential of AI, adding, “we are determined to exploit the vast potential of AI.”
“The IOC wants to set the course for the AI future of sport,” Bach concluded, “with responsible leadership, by embracing the change, while preserving the Olympic values.”
