00:00AI is increasingly being used in human sport, not only to help athletes improve their technique,
00:05but also to help prevent injuries, analyse opponent's tactics and stick to the rules.
00:11Let's head over to Catherine Drew who has more. Hi Catherine.
00:14Yes, thanks Sally. Yes, you may have seen videos of robots playing sport.
00:18This soccer game in Beijing is being held online as highly entertaining.
00:23It seems some standard soccer rules are being broken.
00:26So, could a new ball help?
00:29Inside this ball is a tiny motion sensor that tracks every kick, header and touch 500 times a second.
00:35The instant that a player makes contact, the data is then sent wirelessly to the stadium's computer.
00:40And at the same time that that is going on, there are cameras all over the stadium that are tracking
00:45every player on the field.
00:47Now there are reports England's Premier League is considering following the example of the FIFA World Cup,
00:52which used the Trionda ball made by Adidas, featuring a motion sensor chip that sent real-time tracking data to
00:59video assistant referees to assist with offside and boundary decisions.
01:04Now, this famously sent Croatia out of the World Cup's round of 32 after a late equaliser against Poland.
01:11It came after broadcast cameras and video replays were entirely inconclusive.
01:16But a data spike from the ball revealed the Croatian attacker was offside.
01:21This netizen citizen called the decision rigged.
01:24So, clearly, not everyone is convinced.
01:27Now, Spain's La Liga has become the first professional domestic football league to use connected ball technology in every match
01:35this season, using this ball from Puma.
01:38Professional football clubs are increasingly turning to AI to analyse player performance and opponent's tactics, track injuries and scout for
01:46new talent.
01:47Liverpool FC has partnered with Google DeepMind to develop a specialised spatial AI system called Tactic AI to research and
01:56predict their opponents' strategies.
01:59Now, wearable tech has long been popular with athletes from amateurs to professionals, but AI is giving an edge to
02:06injury prevention.
02:08Developments include in-shoe sensors enabling athletes to analyse their performance.
02:14And a company in Minnesota has developed a smart tooth guard that monitors what impact sports, such as rugby, boxing
02:22and American football, have on players.
02:25The guard captures, measures and streams real-time data on head impacts to improve athlete safety and help detect potential
02:35brain injuries.
02:36But the rapid integration of AI into sport has raised concerns over algorithmic bias.
02:42For example, players being sidelined if they don't meet AI standards, data privacy risks and surveillance, tech inequality, putting poorer
02:50athletes at a disadvantage, and diluting human excellence in sport.
02:55Well, let's get more on this with Samir Sirich, a sports tech entrepreneur, investor and former national handball champion.
03:03Samir, thank you so much for joining us.
03:05Appreciate your time.
03:06So, we're seeing a lot of AI developments in global sport, aren't we?
03:10Where do you stand on this?
03:12You have promoted digitisation in sport.
03:15You're a fan, I guess.
03:18Yes, absolutely.
03:19I think there's two ways around it.
03:22I think AI is here to stay.
03:25In sport, it's really embedding itself across the board.
03:28I think you already mentioned, you know, from injury prevention and injury recovery in the AI and concussion sort of
03:35case studies has been absolutely sort of the way forward.
03:39And, you know, we sort of exist because athletes are these gladiators on the pitch and fans are actually coming
03:47to the stadiums because of that.
03:49And AI is really enabling the sort of much more personalised relationship between fans and their favourite clubs.
03:57But it's also assisting coaches and scouts to look at the data that historically they would have struggled to be
04:04able to process and make the right decisions.
04:07Now, of course, you know, there are risks that, you know, the sort of AI tools and AI agents could
04:14put certain athletes at the risk of, you know, devaluing their contract value or even being selected for the next
04:22match.
04:22But I think that the benefits of AI massively outweigh the risks and anything else that comes with that.
04:30Well, you may say that, but some people will say, of course, this is going to turn into a battle
04:34of software and the human integrity and grit won't be so much a part of it.
04:39I mean, what do you see any downsides?
04:42Yes, of course, Catherine.
04:44There's definitely downside in the sense that proprietary tech and those richer clubs that actually have access to data teams,
04:53have access to much bigger budgets to invest in actually sort of gaining advantage there.
04:59But I think a sort of medium to long term, we're going to also see a level playing field.
05:05I think the smaller teams and we've seen in England, we've seen with the likes of Brentford and Brighton, being
05:11able to use the power of data to actually not just stay in the Premier League,
05:16but end up playing the European football by sort of applying the best and the latest technology and AI being
05:23very much part of that.
05:25Also, they're gaining access to the global sort of fund base and enabling them to create new revenue.
05:31So, yes, there are definitely risks there, but an advantage is for the richer clubs.
05:36But I think that the smaller clubs are keeping up with that.
