Paris 2024 catapults Chinese tech to global fame

During the Olympics, Chinese AI company SenseTime worked with the Chinese national basketball team to offer AI-driven sports data analysis and advice on strategies. It developed an AI-powered basketball performance analysis platform in collaboration with the Shanghai Artificial Intelligence Laboratory and Shanghai University of Sport.

The platform can analyze each athlete's state of motion and the trajectory of the basketball's movement in real time, and give immediate feedback to the coaching team by constructing 3D models and leveraging 3D motion capture algorithms, with a goal of improving athletes' training efficiency and their performance in competition.

Xu Li, chairman and CEO of SenseTime, said the combination of AI with sports is a potential direction for bolstering the application and development of LLMs in the future, adding the company can provide technological support in areas like athlete training, competition analysis and game broadcasting based on its vision large model system.

SenseTime's smart broadcasting technology has also been used to cover table tennis and archery events in Paris, creating an immersive viewing experience for audiences.

In cooperation with Shanghai Media Tech, a local media technology company, the company's InnoMotion broadcasting solution leverages 3D motion capture capacities to achieve multi-person, large-area and multi-angle coverage of various sporting scenes, without the need for wearable devices.

The technology can capture real-time spatial motion data and accurately track and analyze fast-moving, small targets such as table tennis balls and arrows. Audiences can clearly view the rotation direction and landing point of table tennis balls or the intricate flight trajectory of arrows via augmented reality technology on their screens, SenseTime said.

Apart from Chinese companies, US technology firms, including Intel and Google, brought their AI-related technology to the Olympics. For instance, Intel collaborated with the IOC to develop AthleteGPT, a chatbot that handled athlete inquiries and delivered customized information services during athletes' stay at the Olympic Village.

Google's AI technology featured in a recent partnership with NBCUniversal, a broadcaster of the Games, through things like 3D maps of venues and by pulling up information about specific sports.

The innovative use of cutting-edge technologies marks a step toward enhancing the overall Olympic experience for viewers. The Paris Olympics serves as a platform for different countries to display their latest achievements in world-leading technologies and innovations, said industry insiders.

Hong Yong, an associate research fellow at the e-commerce research institute of the Chinese Academy of International Trade and Economic Cooperation, said that Chinese companies' enthusiasm for Olympics also highlights their commitment and determination to expanding their presence in overseas markets and rising international competitiveness in the high-tech domain.

He further said the implementation of AI technology at Paris 2024 provided athletes with more scientific and personalized training methods, helping improve the level of competition and giving a strong boost to technological advancements of global sporting events.