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AI in the future of Sports

Writer's picture: Shreyasi BoseShreyasi Bose

Have you ever asked why, throughout the midst of an Indian Premier League auction, teams fight so ferociously and then end up spending so much money on an unspecified entity? You wouldn't be the only one if you did, because the franchise's change doesn't coordinate with conventional logic.


Conventional logic seems to be too constrained. Artificial Intelligence (AI) comes into play. As humble as it might be, AI is much superior at spotting talent, whether unknown or not, in order to improve a franchise's odds of winning the championship. Moneyball, a book and film about the Oakland Athletics' inexplicable rise in baseball in 2002 thanks to the use of sabermetrics, is a nascent iteration of what is now being utilized.



Source- Technogym


V Kamakoti, Professor at the Department of Computer Sciences, IIT Madras, and Chairman of AI task force for the Government of India says, “AI can comprehend more information in lesser time than we ever could .The only difference is the consumption of energy. Our brain uses up about 25 watts generally. AI takes a lakh and more. If consumption isn’t a criterion, it can do more computation, and faster, that we ever could.”

AI's sole purpose is to ensure that it performs the mission at hand faster than it did a few minutes before, implying that it is progressing at a pace that is difficult for human beings to grasp.

“Say a team says it wants to win the IPL on a limited budget, the AI engine is fed all the data and it’s asked to pick the best squad for the conditions to come. AI does that in no time, and then it narrows it down to opposition, matches, conditions and so on. At this rate, a scout, selectors and a coach are redundant because AI does it faster and evidently better.”


A team says it wants to win the IPL on a limited budget, the AI engine is fed all the data. It is then asked to pick the best squad for the conditions to come. At this rate, a scout, selectors, and a coach are redundant because AI does this evidently better.


More on this later because it also focuses on the sport and the competitors involved, rather than the effect AI has on audiences and their entertainment consumption. At a moment when a worldwide pandemic has confined everyone to their homes, tv and OTT (over-the-top) networks have risen to the fore, offering a variety of data snippets to keep viewers engaged.


Source- Datafloq

At a moment when a worldwide pandemic has confined everyone to their homes, tv and OTT (over-the-top) networks have risen to the fore, offering a variety of data snippets to keep viewers engaged. Broadcasters and streaming services have long sought ways to keep viewers' interest, and when any other choices were exhausted, they turned to AI for help. It did so by offering new camera angles based on user preferences, carefully crafted highlight sets based on social cues, and subtitles based on the user's location, among other things.


Sanjog Gupta, head of sports in Star and Disney India - revealed that AI is playing a massive role in their dissemination of Indian Premier League content. “You will see over the next 12 months the quality of replays required to make the decision improve significantly. What will happen with better technology is that decisions will start becoming more and more accurate and more precise. So I think it's a matter of continuing to invest in technology and continuing to constantly upgrade the quality of cameras."

Though the likelihood of expanding the number of cameras per game has arisen to Star since the games are played without crowds (long-range cameras take up space and can obstruct spectators' view at the ground), Gupta pointed out that all 34 cameras used during an IPL game will act as slow-motion cameras, eliminating the need for additional cameras.

IBM Watson has remastered classic Wimbledon matches from over 40 years ago. IBM Watson now handles the automated curation of tennis highlights. The technology can also be used to create animated GIFs and animated gifs.

Imagine the same thing happening in cricket. The sweat on Kapil Dev's brows after his team's World Cup win in 1983. AI may also be able to replicate Kapil's unbeaten 175 against Zimbabwe in the same World Cup.


“It’s not entirely impossible,” says an AI expert from Bengaluru, who has worked on recreating tools in the past. “Scorecard data is available and there are some texts on the innings. If we can get people at the ground to talk about the knock, including Kapil Dev himself, it won’t be hard to come up with a rendering. It won’t be accurate but it won’t be impossible.”

A team from the University of Sheffield's Sheffield Methods Institute worked on a research paper titled Formula for success: Multilevel modeling of Formula One Driver and Constructor results, 1950–2014 in the 2010s. Despite the drab scholarly title, their readings did not enthuse many in the Formula One industry, for the world's most technologically sophisticated sport was being advised by technology that it had so many technologies.


Dr. Andrew Bell, the F1 project's team chief, claimed that the car/team accounts for 86 percent of results from 1979 to 2014, while the driver accounts for 14 percent. It had fallen to about 10% in 2018. Since then, the figures have decreased ever further. This suggests that the criticism that Formula One is more about the car than human ability isn't entirely baseless.


Lewis Hamilton, in particular, will be dissatisfied with this, as the seven-time World Champion is ranked twelfth on this study paper's list of the best drivers of all time. Number one is Juan Manuel Fangio, led by Alain Prost and Michael Schumacher.

Fernando Alonso is currently the highest-ranked driver in the current field, and he is sixth overall.

Machine Learning was the first step in the process (ML). The scientists handed over data from all of the algorithms and mathematical models that had been fed to the computer. After deciphering the data, AI narrowed the field and operated on the details that were required.

Consider ML as a child who is being fed bits of information. Eventually, the data becomes the foundation for more in-depth thinking and faster learning. The child's ability to operate on the available knowledge in the most effective manner is then referred to as AI.


AI, in essence, imitates humans' capacity to hear, think, and, in some cases, act. In this case, if you have any strand of data on Formula One and were asked, "Who is the greatest driver of all time?" and you were purely logical, the answer would be Fangio.

However, if AI's sole purpose was to prevent barroom brawls, sport and its purveyors would not have devoured it with such zeal.

It was clear from the moment IBM's Deep Blue beat world chess champion Gary Kasparov in 1997 that sport would take advantage of the data-crunching system.


“AI is a big deal,” says Ramji Srinivasan, the former strength and conditioning coach of the Indian cricket team. “At the rate at which AI is going, fitness tests will be redundant in five years. All the data a coach/ trainer needs is perpetually available to them because all athletes use wearables now.

“These wearables also create bespoke workout routines and diets for the players. This individual data is then fed into a system that is built to compete for the team, meaning how will a team benefit from his/ her training, diet, and many such parameters. You can even pick teams with this data,” he says. “In a few years, a chip will be inserted into an athlete’s body and his every move will be monitored,” he adds.



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To help their work, Newsmusk allows writers to use primary sources. White papers, government data, initial reporting, and interviews with industry experts are only a few examples. Where relevant, we also cite original research from others respected publishers.


Source- Decan Herald

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