At this year’s Winter X Games, which will take place from Thursday (23) to Saturday (25) in Aspen, United States, the judges will closely observe the athletes, as they have done since the first edition of the event, in 1997, analyzing each spin, jump and maneuver.
But this time, an artificial intelligence judge will also give his opinions, on an experimental basis.
During competitions in snowboarding’s SuperPipe category, video cameras will capture each athlete’s movements, and the AI will use this information to do what it does best and provide a score for the performance.
It’s a test: humans will still decide the official scores and medals as usual, but commentators and TV audiences will also see the AI’s assessments, which, for now, will not be factored into the official score.
Jeremy Bloom, CEO of the X Games and former freestyle skier, sees AI as a potential “superpower” for judges.
“I would say sometimes humans make mistakes,” said Bloom, who also played in the NFL. “That’s not to say the AI won’t make mistakes too, especially at this early stage, but our goal is to give judges this tool so they can use it in their booth.”
Technology has taken on more and more roles in professional sports. Line judges in tennis have been largely replaced by electronic calls, cameras make offside decisions in football to the millimeter, and even MLB is testing automated strike zones.
Over time, AI could also become an important tool for judges in a range of judging events, such as snowboarding, diving and surfing. An AI tool called the Judgment Support System has already been used by judges at the artistic gymnastics world championships.
The IOC (International Olympic Committee), in its “AI Agenda” released last year, stated that “AI can help reduce human bias in judging and refereeing” and “offer real-time analysis.” The entity acknowledged, however, that it was “still at the beginning of its journey with AI”.
At the X Games at Buttermilk Mountain in Aspen, Colorado this week, AI will help judge the event in which snowboarders perform tricks by launching themselves from a U-shaped channel twenty feet high or more. The AI tool that will be used in the X Games was developed in collaboration with Google Cloud –Sergey Brin, co-founder of Google, is a longtime friend of Bloom.
In addition to providing scores, the tool can offer crucial information about individual snowboard descents. After all, when announcers or judges declare that fast movements, in images that look like a blur of limbs on a board, are, for example, a triple 1620, how right are they?
“Sometimes you miss tricks because they’re spinning too quickly,” Bloom said. “But this model is really accurate in its ability to say, ‘Well, that was a cab 1400.'”
AI can also help athletes with their training. The tool the X Games is using has the ability, Bloom says, “to remember every descent in history,” helping athletes hone their tricks so much to get higher scores.
The X Games CEO sees a role for AI in multiple sports, or “anywhere where the eye can’t follow what the athlete is doing.”
Modalities with judgment and application of scores are often questioned and sometimes produce dubious winners, with an outcry from fans. AI has the potential to silence these complaints.
So will the day come when AI takes over and retires human judges for good?
“I personally don’t think so. But I think AI in partnership with judges can bring more objectivity to subjective sports, and that’s really important to me,” Bloom responded.
“Look, sometimes we humans need help. And if you can give us the ability to see tricks better, see landings more clearly, and understand judging structure better, I can use that as a resource while I calibrate my scores. Man, this is really cool.”
