The International Gymnastics Federation is working on implementing technology that will Artificial Intelligence to help human judges score the athletes at the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games and eventually replace them.
Reuters
The technology is being developed by Japanese IT giant Fujitsu. The technology collects data on the performance of the gymnast using 3D sensors. The software that works in tandem with these sensors are able to capture minute details of the athlete -- from the vault performed by the athlete to the angle of their leg while performing a balance-beam routine.
The software then compares this data with the International Gymnastics Committee Standards and comes up with a score.?
The reason scoring using AI makes sense is because most of the time, judges are known to have biases, whether it is pertaining to favouring their home countries, or favouritism towards an athlete or even towards a specific technique over another. Inclusion of AI removes the unnecessary human element and delivers appropriate scores.
Twitter/ FIG
According to Steve Butcher, sports director and technical coordinator for the International Gymnastics Federation, who has been closely working on the project since 2017 states "It can measure things you can't see with the human eye. A coach may tell a gymnast that everything looks perfect, but it's not necessarily so."
Reuters
There are many challenges along the way though. For starters, the AI system is still in an early stage, and it might not be able to cope up with the dynamism an athlete applies in his performance at an Olympic level. Moreover, the system could be susceptible to hacking.
The system is expected to as of now just assist judges during the 2020 Tokyo Olympics?in making the decisions. If the Olympic committee feels positive with its performance, it could consider making it a standard practice.?