Intel is infusing AI into the upcoming Paris Olympic games to revolutionize the athletes' and spectators' experience. While a future AI Olympics may envision AI-driven competitions in creative realms, the real-world Paris Olympics will run from July 26 to August 10 to showcase human athletes.
This general view shows the Olympic rings on display in front of The City Hall in Paris on March 13, 2023, ahead of the 2024 Olympic Games (Photo : ALAIN JOCARD/AFP via Getty Images)
Intel to Infuse AI Into Paris Olympics 2024
Behind the scenes, AI will engage with athletes, curate highlight reels, and even suggest ideal sports for attendees based on their preferences. Sarah Vickers, head of Intel's Olympic and Paralympic Games Office, highlighted AI as their key focus for these games, reflecting current trends and technological innovations.
Vickers will lead a team of over 100 Intel staff in Paris for the next two months. They aim to develop and implement Intel's AI strategy for the Olympics. In contrast to past initiatives like drone technology for synchronized flying shows, Tech Radar Intel's efforts for the 2024 Paris Olympics will concentrate on specific strategic priorities.
With athletes from 200 countries, Vickers was asked whether the chatbot could understand multiple languages. She wasn't sure about that yet. There are also no immediate plans to let the general public use the chatbot, but Intel may find a way to show it to people who aren't at the games.
The chatbot developed by Intel's Responsible AI team includes safeguards to handle challenging questions. It's designed to selectively respond to queries and filter out those lacking answers. If it encounters such questions, the system can flag them for further investigation and development of appropriate responses.
AI-Powered Highlights for Enhanced Coverage
Intel's AI technology will revolutionize how Olympic event footage is curated and presented to viewers and producers alike. Traditionally, Olympic Broadcast Services faced limitations in creating highlights due to manual tagging and a limited workforce.
Lesser-watched events, like the Clay Pigeon Shooting, often received minimal broadcast coverage, making it difficult to find moments like an athlete hitting 10 perfect targets or emotional shots of supportive parents.
Intel's platform aims to change this landscape with AI-driven auto-tagging and real-time highlight creation. It promises to swiftly generate highlights, even from less mainstream sports, enabling broader coverage and supporting smaller countries with limited broadcast resources.
This innovation could simplify the process of creating region-specific highlight reels by selecting the sport and country and exporting the content easily. AI technology will play a pivotal role during the upcoming Olympics at the Stade De France, which will transform into the main stadium for the games.
Intel and Samsung have collaborated to introduce an advanced AI-driven talent identification system. This system utilizes Samsung smartphones and tablets equipped with computer vision capabilities to observe athletes performing specific sports-related exercises.
Intel's cloud-based AI platform will then analyze these performances to determine every participant's aptitude for particular Olympic sports. This initiative was initially piloted in Senegal, where it assessed local youth to identify potential athletes for the upcoming Youth Olympic Games in 2026.
The program involved engaging 1000 children in various activities to evaluate their skills and abilities. The assessments, using mobile phones, were conducted with minimal infrastructure requirements on the ground, showcasing the versatility and accessibility of the technology.
