X Games To Use AI To Judge Snowboarding Competitions

This weekend’s Winter X Games at Aspen in Colorado will see AI help with the judging of the Superpipe competition. The technology will also be integrated in much more of the X Games global relationship with its fans.

X Games are using experimental AI technology from Google Cloud built on Google’s Vertex large language model and the organisers are stressing that this year is a test event for the tech, but that the plan is to deepen its use in years to come.

The technology can analyse video footage and capture data on metrics such as airtime, trick difficulty, and execution.

In terms of scoring, the AI will be used to just athlete objectively and rate each run with a score. This year the X Games medals won’t be given out based on that AI score, but the scores will be visible so fans can compare the AI score with those of the human judges. The hope is that this will bring more objectivity and clarity to the judging process, which has to date always been a more subjective process basded on the opinions of human judges.

The AI will first of all take a look at athletes practicing for the competition and then predict which it thinks will perform best in the actual competition.

AI will also be used to commentate on reach run and deliver large amounts of athlete information, all  in multiple languages instantaneously to millions of X Games fans watching the competition online around the world.