AI Takes Center Stage at 2024 Paris Olympics

AI will take center stage at the 2024 Paris Olympics, with organizers aiming to leverage the technology from ensuring athlete safety to enhancing broadcasts.

Organizers set the Olympic AI Agenda in April, a framework covering AI’s impact on the future of the Games.

The agenda forms a pledge by the International Olympic Committee and leading partners to ensure AI is used at the Olympics to promote solidarity, improve sustainability and reinforce the role of sport in society.

Partners, including Alibaba, Intel, Omega and NBC, all supported the development of the Olympic AI Agenda.

“We will see some pioneering concepts at Paris 2024, " said Ilario Corna, the chief technology officer. “We are taking a measured approach for now, to test and evaluate how AI can be used to enhance the Olympic Games and have them future-ready.”

Here are some of the AI applications being used at the 2024 Paris Olympics

Online Monitoring Tools

The International Olympic Committee is deploying an AI-powered tool to monitor social media platforms for signs of online abuse aimed at athletes. It will monitor social media accounts and automatically flag abusive messages.

Developed by the International Olympic Committee’s Athletes’ Commission and Medical and Scientific Commission, the online monitoring platform will gather information to help the organization better understand online abuse to enhance athlete protection for future Games.

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IOC President Thomas Bach called the application “a very important one” with half a billion social media posts expected during the upcoming Games. 

AI-Powered Chat Service

Athletes in Paris will have access to an AI-powered chat application designed to help answer queries in natural language.

Developed in partnership with Intel, the chatbot is available through the Athlete365 platform, the official portal of the Olympic Games for competitors.

Powered by a combination of generative AI and retrieval-augmented generation, the chatbot can provide information to athletes to help them navigate the Olympic Village and answer questions about event rules and guidelines.

“For accredited athletes at the Games, the service is designed to provide easy and quick answers to Frequently Asked Questions on topics such as social media guidelines, anti-doping rules and Rule 50 regulations,” said Corna.

Digital Twins for Event Management

The Paris Games aims to be the most environmentally friendly in history. To ensure energy is used efficiently across the various venues, the organizations have built digital twins to monitor consumption.

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The International Olympic Committee has been collecting operational data since 2020 to improve operational efficiency. 

In Paris, Atos will be leading the connected efforts at the games, managing a team of 15 technology partners to ensure sites are fully connected and secure.

Among those partners is OnePlan, whose 3D digital twin view platform, VenueTwin, has been used to create visualizations of venues such as the Marseille Marina and the Eiffel Tower Arena.

Organizers can use the visualizations to monitor energy consumption along with crowd and traffic management and weather conditions.

“For planning, we are now working with our partner Intel using the concept of digital twinning, or digital representations of venues so we can foresee, for example, where we would need power, where we would need to place cameras and if there could be any accessibility issues – all without needing to be on-site every time,” Corna said. “Using these digital twins of the Games venues, we can change the way we organize the Games.”

The real-time data collected in Paris will be used to improve the planning and organization of future Olympic Games.

Augmenting Broadcasting

Several broadcast partners are bringing AI tools to the Olympics to improve the viewing experience for those watching at home.

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Among those is NBCUniversal, which is offering an AI-powered highlights tool on its streaming platform, Peacock, featuring an AI voice clone of sportscaster Al Michaels narrating the action.

Official Olympic Broadcasting Services during the 2024 Paris Olympics will leverage Alibaba Cloud’s OBS Cloud platform to augment and improve workflows during live broadcasts.

The software is designed to be easy to use, letting users transmit Olympic Games-related content over the cloud, reducing on-site carbon footprints.

OBS Cloud can be deployed across various operating systems including Mac, Windows and Linux. It was previously used to support broadcasts of the 2020 Tokyo Summer Olympics and the 2022 Beijing Olympics.

In addition to OBS Cloud, Alibaba will provide multi-camera replay systems that feature AI-powered replay features. “This will deliver more compelling replays from more camera angles,” said Yiannis Exarchos, Olympic Broadcasting Services’ CEO.

Long-standing official timekeeper Omega will provide AI-powered tools to ensure accurate event results. 

Among the AI-powered tools on display in Paris will be smarter stroboscopic tools that will monitor athletes in athletics and diving events, intelligently tracking their movements.

Omega is combining its AI with the OBS software to generate enhanced data graphics for viewers, providing intricate data to enhance broadcast experiences.

Omega’s AI-based motion tracking technology will also help viewers keep track of athletes’ positions during events including the canoe sprint, the marathon and road cycling.

Athlete Identification

One future AI use case is plans to use the technology to identify the next generation of Olympic athletes.

The International Olympic Committee plans to launch a global project in 2025 to spot future sports stars.

Bach said the project ensures the organization “live[s] up to the commitment we made that AI in sport must be accessible to everybody.”