The Olympic Games, a grand showcase of athletic prowess and global unity, is also a stage where cutting-edge technology takes center stage. As the world witnessed the Paris Olympics, several神秘 tech companies worked tirelessly behind the scenes to enhance the experience for athletes, viewers, and organizers alike.
The Rise of AI in Olympics
Artificial intelligence (AI) has been making inroads into various industries, and the Olympics is no exception. On April 19th, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) unveiled the Olympic AI Agenda in London, emphasizing the need to harness AI’s potential in the operations of the Games. IOC President Thomas Bach stated, We must be leaders of change, not its subjects.
AthleteGPT: A Game-Changer for Athletes
One of the first encounters athletes had with AI in Paris was through AthleteGPT, a language model integrated into the Athlete365 mobile app. This AI-powered assistant provided athletes with information about venues, opening ceremonies, competition rules, and sponsor activities, among other things.
The company behind AthleteGPT is Mistral AI, a French startup often referred to as Europe’s OpenAI. Founded in 2023 by DeepMind researcher Arthur Mensch and two former Meta AI scientists, Timothée Lacroix and Guillaume Lample, Mistral AI has quickly gained prominence. Within a year, the company secured 600 million euros in new funding, valuing it at approximately 6 billion euros. Notably, its investors include tech giants like NVIDIA, Microsoft, and Salesforce, indicating a diversification strategy, especially for Microsoft, which has also invested in OpenAI.
Microsoft’s Strategic Move
Mistral AI’s large language model will be available on Microsoft’s Azure cloud platform, making it the second company after OpenAI to host such models on the platform. This move will provide Mistral AI with new distribution channels to attract more clients and open up opportunities for collaboration with Microsoft.
Intel’s Role in AI
Another tech giant contributing to the AI infrastructure of the Olympics is Intel. AthleteGPT is powered by Intel’s Xeon processors and Gaudi accelerators, leveraging the RAG (Retrieval Augmented Generation) technology. Despite trailing behind NVIDIA in the AI chip market, Intel is not willing to miss out on the vast opportunities that AI presents.
During the Paris Olympics, Intel utilized AI to automatically select and send exciting moments from Olympic events to broadcasting companies. This technology, which identifies important moments based on audience noise, such as goals in football matches or sprint finishes in swimming events, allows for quicker editing and broadcasting of highlights.
Intel’s President for Europe, the Middle East, and Africa, Demetrios Maragos, told Fortune magazine, Traditionally, whether it’s content editing or creating highlights, or even cross-platform content consumption, they could only cover a certain number of sports. But now, with the help of AI, they are able to expand the range of content coverage.
Alibaba Cloud: Digital Transformation of the Olympics
Olympic President Bach also highlighted the role of a Chinese company, saying, Alibaba Cloud is bringing the Olympics into the digital age. During the Paris Olympics, cloud-based broadcasting officially surpassed satellite broadcasting, becoming the primary method of delivering the Games to billions of viewers worldwide. Alibaba Cloud distributed an estimated 11,000 hours of live event coverage globally.
Without cloud computing technology, Olympic broadcasts would rely heavily on expensive satellite and traditional fiber optic cable transmissions, which require significant advance hardware deployment. For traditional satellite broadcasting companies, these costs are substantial.
Since 2018, the Olympic Broadcasting Services (OBS) has been collaborating with Alibaba Cloud. OBS CEO Yannis Exarchos revealed that the broadcasting center planned to produce 15% to 20% more content than the Tokyo Olympics, with the actual production volume potentially increasing by 40%.
Conclusion
As the Olympic Games conclude, the collaboration and competition among tech companies like Mistral AI, Alibaba Cloud, and Intel have only just begun. These companies are not just enhancing the Olympic experience; they are also setting the stage for future technological advancements in sports broadcasting and beyond. The Paris Olympics have shown that the fusion of sports and technology can create a more engaging, efficient, and accessible global event.
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