The 2024 Paris Olympics officially ended with a closing ceremony at Stade de France on August 11. We look back at how artificial intelligence (AI) and cloud technologies helped enhance the Games.
Here’s a breakdown on how AI, cloud tech elevate 2024 Paris Olympics:
AI and the Olympics
Enhancing athlete performance
- Data Analysis: AI is used to analyze vast amounts of athlete data, such as performance metrics, biomechanics, and recovery patterns, to optimize training regimens and prevent injuries.
- Virtual Coaching: AI-powered virtual coaches provide personalized guidance, helping athletes improve their techniques and strategies.
Improving spectator experience
- Immersive Experiences: AI-driven technologies offer fans interactive experiences, such as virtual reality replays, augmented reality overlays, and personalized content based on their preferences.
- Real-time analytics: AI provides instant insights and statistics during competitions, enhancing the viewing experience.
- Accessibility: AI-powered tools improve accessibility for people with disabilities, offering real-time translations, audio descriptions, and navigation assistance.
Optimizing operations
- Logistics and transportation: AI optimizes transportation routes, manages crowd flow, and improves overall event logistics.
- Cybersecurity: AI helps protect against cyber threats, safeguarding sensitive data and ensuring the integrity of the event.
- Sustainability: AI contributes to a more sustainable Olympics by optimizing energy consumption, waste management, and resource utilization.
AI-powered applications in Paris
- AthleteGPT: An AI chatbot providing athletes with instant information and support.
- Immersive fan experiences: Intel’s AI-powered fan features allow fans to experience the thrill of Olympic sports firsthand.
- Data-driven decision making: AI helps the IOC make informed decisions based on data analysis.
Cloud tech elevates the Games
Alibaba Cloud, the digital technology and intelligence backbone of Alibaba Group, has harnessed the power of its cloud technologies to drive multiple initiatives throughout the Olympic Games Paris 2024.
These efforts were made to empower media professionals in their coverage of the Games, while also elevating the engagement for worldwide sports fans through a range of innovative applications.
“Alibaba plays an essential role when it comes to supporting technology during the Olympic Games, greatly increasing the efficiency and sustainability of Olympic Games operations. Our partnership also extends beyond the Olympic Games, with Alibaba playing a defining role in our Olympic AI Agenda, helping us harness the great potential of AI in a responsible way. All these examples highlight how Alibaba is the perfect partner when it comes to shaping our digital future,” said Thomas Bach, President of International Olympic Committee.
Enriching media asset management with Deep-learning archiving
Alibaba Cloud has collaborated with the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to launch a Media Archiving AI Solution. This cloud-based solution provides enhanced visual search functions, automatic categorization of multimedia content, and video highlight production through AI-powered media asset management services.
The IOC Media Archiving AI solution marks a significant breakthrough in sports media archiving. The solution’s automatic video highlight generation, powered by Alibaba Cloud’s visual AI, identifies and compiles memorable moments in the games of boxing and archery during Paris 2024. This feature assists media professionals with their video storytelling, enriching the Games viewing experience for the global audience.
Furthermore, Alibaba Cloud’s proprietary AI algorithms streamline the indexing and categorization of the decades-old Olympic audiovisual and photo collections, making the Olympic Archive more searchable, and therefore, enhancing content discovery while optimizing the media asset management workflows.
Debut of smart virtual boxing
At the Alibaba Wonder Avenue (AWA), Alibaba Cloud also debuted its Smart Virtual Boxing project. Alibaba Cloud’s proprietary LLM Qwen was applied to enable analysis of the moves and performances of each player during the Virtual Boxing match, providing real-time commentary in both English and French of each player’s approach and predicted their performance in the next round, thereby enriching the spectator experience.
Accentuating Olympic moments with 360-degree slow motion replays
During Paris 2024, Multi-Camera Replay Systems by OBS Cloud, a collaborative initiative between the Olympic Broadcasting Services (OBS) and Alibaba Cloud, provided 360-degree, frame-freeze slow-motion replays. Footage was sent to the cloud, where Alibaba Cloud’s AI-driven computing capabilities enabled live spatial reconstruction and real-time 3D rendering before shared as replays, which facilitated a deeper understanding of pivotal game moments and were made available on OBS’ Content+ platform for comprehensive media analysis to all Media Rights-Holders (MRHs).
The systems had produced and delivered thousands of replay clips, covering a range of sports including basketball, gymnastics, tennis, beach volleyball and rugby sevens.
The Multi-Camera Replay Systems is part of the newly-launched OBS Cloud 3.0, which was used as the main method to distribute remote content to support MRHs’ Olympics broadcasting coverage, including the spectacular Opening Ceremony of Paris 2024 that attracts tens of millions of viewers worldwide.
Cloud enhances spectator engagement with animated videos
To create more entertaining and engaging spectator experience, Alibaba Cloud unveiled Cloud Memento, an innovative tool that transforms participants’ static images into immersive motion videos with the help of AI technology.
Olympic fans had the opportunity to experience this transformative technology first-hand at three iconic venues: the Eiffel Tower Stadium, Champs De Mars Arena, and Invalides.
READ MORE TECH NEWS.
