“A stick compensates for an athlete’s lack of skill” – Kommersant FM

Kommersant FM columnist Alexander Levi talks about the use of artificial intelligence in sports.

It is interesting how quickly the application of variations of artificial intelligence in sports will require regulation. No less interesting is what forms of technology application will be considered an advantage and in what types of competitions. It’s hard to imagine that in figure skating, gymnastics or boxing, for example, today artificial intelligence can somehow significantly influence the outcome. While in chess or Formula 1 this already seems real.

Let me highlight a broad category of competitions in which technology can play a significant role. These are sports, so to speak, with equipment, be it a ball, a snowboard, even a car and a yacht. What is separable from an athlete can be reassembled from other materials and according to other principles, and the engineering scope of the human body is limited by physiology.

Wouldn’t it be better to use athletes as a source of data to adjust the performance of the apparatus? That’s what Callaway did. The golf club manufacturer collected information on thousands of players: impact location, trajectory, angle of attack, club position, etc. Using artificial intelligence, I distributed this data and obtained interesting results that made it possible to create a new line of Paradym Ai Smoke clubs.

With the help of machine learning, Callaway engineers were able to develop AI Smart Face technology, which, depending on your playing style, will help optimize ball launch and spin on bad shots. In other words, the stick partly compensates for the lack of skill of the athlete himself.

In my opinion, this does not develop the athlete’s skills, but artificially increases his level. Moreover, those who are less skilled receive a greater increase in their capabilities. The extent of the decisive impact of AI Smart Face technology has yet to be assessed, but we can already say for sure that with the triumph of technology, the need to regulate artificial intelligence in sports will only get closer.