AI in Sport: The Effect on Athlete Privacy
In April 2024, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) introduced the Olympic AI Agenda, highlighting how AI can benefit sports. The Paris Games was the first to see it in action. In this article, we’ll explain how AI is used in sports events such as the Olympic games in Paris and what might be the potential threat to athlete privacy in the future of sport and AI.
How Was AI Used in the Olympic and Paralympic Games?
AI is designed to enhance athlete safety and well-being at the Olympic Games by monitoring and reducing risks associated with competition.
With AI-powered systems, athletes’ health data can be analysed in real-time to detect signs of fatigue, injury, or other potential issues, allowing for timely interventions that could prevent harm. These innovations aim to create a safer environment, ensuring that athletes can perform at their best while minimising physical risks.
1. Performance Analysis and Training
AI helps athletes in their training by providing data-driven insights into their performance. Wearable sensors and AI-powered software assess movement patterns, biomechanics, and energy efficiency. This data enables athletes to fine-tune their techniques and improve their performance. AI can also simulate different race or competition conditions, allowing athletes to prepare more effectively.
2. Adaptive Equipment For Paralympic Athletes
AI is used to develop customised prosthetics, wheelchairs, and other adaptive equipment for paralympic athletes. For example, AI can design prosthetics that are more responsive and adapt to different terrains or athletic activities. This technology ensures that athletes get equipment tailored to their unique physical needs and sporting requirements, improving performance and reducing the risk of injury.
3. Assistive & Accessibility Technologies For Paralympic Athletes
AI-powered assistive technologies, such as exoskeletons or smart glasses, are being used to help athletes with visual or mobility impairments. These technologies enable athletes to compete more effectively by providing real-time feedback, navigation, or even enhancing sensory perception, such as translating visual data into auditory or tactile information.
AI helps improve the overall accessibility of the Paralympic Games for athletes and spectators alike. AI-driven apps and tools can provide real-time captioning, sign language translation, and personalised user interfaces for individuals with disabilities, making it easier for everyone to follow the events.
4. Fair Classification System
A fair classification system is essential for ensuring equity in the Paralympics and Olympics. AI is used to analyse medical, physiological, and performance data to classify athletes more accurately, ensuring that paralympic athletes with similar impairments compete against each other. This minimises the risk of unfair advantages or mismatches in competition.
5. Health Monitoring and Injury Prevention
AI can track athletes' physical condition during training and competition, monitoring for signs of fatigue, injury, or other health issues. Real-time AI analysis can alert coaches or medical staff to potential problems, allowing for quick interventions to prevent injury or assist in recovery.
6. Fan Engagement
AI is also used to enhance fan engagement, offering personalised content, virtual and augmented reality experiences, and data-driven insights into athlete performances. This also makes the Paralympic experience more immersive for audiences, particularly those who may have disabilities themselves.
The Potential Impact on Competitor Privacy
Whilst AI offers many advantages for competitors and spectators, there are potential risks in using AI in sports events.
The use of AI in the Olympic Games, particularly in areas like talent identification, data capture, and cyber abuse prevention, does present potential risks to athletes' data if not carefully managed.
AI systems typically rely on vast amounts of personal data such as performance metrics, biometric information, and social media activity to function effectively. If proper safeguards are not in place, this data could be vulnerable to misuse, breaches, or even unintended exploitation.
1. Collection and Misuse of Personal Data
AI systems often rely on vast amounts of data, including personal and health-related information. Competitors’ physical metrics, biometric data, and medical records are collected to optimise performance, design adaptive equipment, or classify athletes. The risk here lies in the possibility of this sensitive data being misused, leaked, or shared without consent, potentially leading to discrimination or exploitation.
2. Unnecessary Surveillance
AI systems can monitor athletes’ activities, behaviours, and health conditions in real-time. While this data is used to improve performance and safety, continuous surveillance could infringe on athletes' privacy by creating an environment where every movement is monitored. This can extend to their personal lives, with AI systems tracking information outside of competition settings, blurring the lines between professional and private worlds.
3. Data Ownership and Control
There can be ambiguity over who owns the data collected by AI systems, the athletes, their teams, or the organisations running the event. Athletes may lose control over how their data is used, stored, or shared, which could be problematic if the data is used for purposes beyond the original intent, such as commercial exploitation or unauthorised research.
4. Cybersecurity Risks
AI systems are vulnerable to cyberattacks, where sensitive personal data can be stolen, altered, or manipulated. A breach in security could expose competitors' private medical or performance data, putting them at risk of identity theft, unfair competition, or even manipulation by opponents or sponsors.
5. Discrimination
AI systems can inadvertently introduce bias when processing athletes' data. If data is used in classification systems, there’s a risk that it could reinforce existing biases based on gender, disability type, or nationality. This could lead to unfair advantages or disadvantages for certain groups of athletes, affecting their ability to compete fairly.
6. Consent and Transparency Issues
The collection and use of AI-driven data often happen in the background, and athletes may not be fully aware of the extent of data being collected or how it will be used. Without clear guidelines or consent mechanisms, competitors may unknowingly surrender their privacy.
7. Impact on Mental Health
Being under constant data scrutiny through AI tools can create pressure and anxiety among athletes, as their every move or health condition could be recorded and analysed. The knowledge that AI systems are collecting and interpreting their personal information might affect their mental well-being and performance.
The Future
One of the most critical applications of AI in the Olympic Games was in safeguarding athletes and participants from cyber abuse. With over half a billion social media posts during the Games, AI played a vital role in detecting and preventing harmful online behaviour, ensuring a safer digital environment.
AI also contributed to creating real-time highlights videos in multiple formats and languages, providing fans worldwide with accessible, engaging content. These AI-driven highlights helped capture the excitement of the Games in new ways, reaching a broad and diverse audience.
Looking to the future, the IOC’s use of AI extended to talent identification, with a global initiative set to launch in 2025. This project aims to democratise access to AI in sports, ensuring that it remains inclusive and accessible for all aspiring athletes.
How Can Gerrish Legal Help?
Gerrish Legal is a dynamic digital law firm. We pride ourselves on giving high-quality and expert legal advice to our valued clients. We specialise in many aspects of digital law such as GDPR, data privacy, digital and technology law, commercial law, and intellectual property.
We give companies the support they need to successfully and confidently run their businesses whilst complying with legal regulations without the burdens of keeping up with ever-changing digital requirements.
We are here to help you, get in contact with us today for more information.