One day, we may see an Artificial Intelligence Olympics, where generative AI compete to create the wildest images, videos, and hallucinogenic text responses. Meanwhile, the real Olympics kicks off on July 26 in Paris, France. It will feature flesh-and-blood athletes, but behind the scenes, AI will be chatting with them, putting together highlight reels, and telling participants which Olympic events they're fit to compete in (at least in fantasy).
“Artificial intelligence is a really hot topic right now and naturally a big focus for us across these Games and we're the official artificial intelligence platform provider to the Olympics,” said Sarah Vickers, head of Intel's Olympic and Paralympic Games office.
I spoke with Vickers just before she left for Paris, where she will oversee more than 100 Intel employees over the next two months working to build and integrate Intel's Olympic AI strategy.
Unlike past years, when Intel invested in drone intelligence and helped build the Olympics' early synchronized drone flight shows, its efforts at the Paris 2024 Olympics will be grounded and focused on a few key areas.
Earn medals in chat
Yes, Intel is using its Gaudi 2 generative AI platform to develop an Olympic chatbot that will help more than 10,000 athletes navigate the sometimes-confusing Olympic Village and stadiums.
Vickers explained that it's a law master's course for athletes that will be integrated into the Athlete 365 application that athletes already use. The program will help stressed-out athletes understand the day-to-day running of the Olympics and what is expected of them. “We're taking all of that stuff that athletes have to search for or find in PDFs and putting it into a conversational chatbot that's integrated into the apps that athletes already have and that also runs online.”
We may soon have an answer as to whether taking Tylenol before competing could cause a doping problem, or if it's simply a matter of bus schedules to and from various sports venues.
With athletes from 200 countries, they were curious to see if the chatbot could speak multiple languages. Vickers responded that it was too early to say whether that was possible, and while there were no clear plans to release the chatbot to the rest of the world, Vickers thought Intel might explore ways to show it off to consumers who weren't attending the Games.
As for the safeguards included in the LLM, Intel’s Responsible AI group helped develop the chatbot. “I don’t think we can stop people from asking outlandish questions, but I think we can stop what the bot responds to and identify that it’s something we don’t have the answer for, and then maybe figure it out,” Vickers told me.
Broadcasting Category Bronze Award
On the viewer (and producer) side, Intel AI will comb through footage of the event to curate and present the highlights. If you think there's enough highlight videos online already, imagine the lesser-watched events that are recorded but don't get as much attention in broadcasts or productions. You'll be hard-pressed to find a highlight of a clay pigeon hitting the target perfectly for the 10th time, or an emotional shot of parents cheering on the athlete.
“Traditionally, when Olympic Broadcast Services created highlights, they were limited by the number of people who could create them. There wasn't much automation. They did some tagging, but all of that tagging was done manually, so they were limited in how much they could deliver. Now, with what we're doing now, with the AI, the auto-tagging and the ability to create real-time highlights, they can do it in just a few minutes, in near real-time.”
This could be useful for lesser known sports, as well as smaller countries that can't afford to send out broadcast teams to find and present regional highlight footage. With this AI tagging, it could be as simple as selecting the sport and country and hitting the export button.
Gold Medal Skills
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If you're lucky enough to be at the Olympics, you'll see AI at work at the Stade de France, France's largest sports stadium and Olympic stadium. Intel and Samsung have partnered to bring an AI-powered talent-discovery system to the site. Using Samsung smartphones and tablets and computer vision, participants will be photographed performing sports-related exercises, and Intel's cloud-based AI will identify which Olympic sport they are best suited to.
The two tech companies piloted the program in Senegal to help identify local youth potential athletes to compete in the Youth Olympic Games that will be held in Senegal in 2026.
“We got 1,000 kids involved in this to find out what their skills are, what they can do, and it could all be done on a mobile phone. [and] “Local infrastructure costs are very low,” Vickers explained.
Navigation Silver
Other AI integrations include a wayfinding system originally designed for the visually impaired, helping everyone find their way in and around the Olympic Village. AI will also be used to analyze usage of spaces in the media lounge and throughout the village.
“Just thinking about people movement, if we understand the occupancy we can better understand how to manage food and beverage. We can also better understand how to manage transport queues. We can use that data to make better decisions. That information is also being used by the IOC.” [International Olympic Committee] It helps me plan for the future.”
Most of Intel's AI integration typically runs in the cloud using Intel Xeon processors. The software is typically Intel's Geti application, which helps with performance and model building. Vickers said that while some AI can run locally (or at the edge) on devices such as Samsung tablets and smartphones, that's not what's happening at the Olympics.
What Intel won't do is bring this AI directly into the Opening Ceremony, which will have a human touch and emotion and whatever stagecraft a producer can apply, perhaps even drones, which Intel is not providing.
