Using AI to protect athletes during the Olympics

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has announced its intention to use an AI-powered monitoring system to protect athletes and officials from online abuse during the Olympic and Paralympic Games in Paris next summer.

The new system will monitor thousands of accounts on major social media platforms in over 35 languages in real time, according to an IOC statement released on Tuesday.

“Any specific threats will be reported and there will therefore be the possibility of effectively dealing with abusive messages by the social media platforms concerned, in different ways, even before the athlete sees the abuse,” the IOC said.

According to the statement, the Paris Olympics will be the first to use AI to ensure the safety and freedom of use of social media platforms by a large number of athletes competing in multiple events at the same time.

“These systems will be put in place so that athletes can focus on their performance, knowing that everything else is under control,” said Kirstie Burrows, head of the IOC’s Athlete Safeguarding Unit.