AI, data analytics to predict injuries for professional athletes
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The use of AI and data analytics may help in predicting probable overuse injuries, thus helping athletes to sustain their optimum performance for as long as possible.
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AI and data analytics to predict injuries for professional athletes
The combination of Artificial Intelligence (AI) with video, or computer vision technologies, could become instrumental in foreseeing possible athletic injuries before their occurrence.
Coaches and elites are excited to receive tailored prescriptions for workout and practice drills that would result in diminished injury risks, said CEO and founder of Kitman Labs Stephen Smith, a data firm working in several pro sports leagues with offices in Silicon Valley and Dublin.
This information revolution will, without doubt, benefit athletes by reducing to a great extent some overuse injuries. According to sports analytics experts, computer vision technologies, analogous to those used in airports for facial recognition, will become wearable sensors used by a wide range of athletes.
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Smith said, “There are athletes that are treating their body like a business, and they’ve started to leverage data and information to better manage themselves.”
While this new frontier of AI and sports offers opportunities for keeping players healthy, it also raises challenging concerns about who will own this compilation of raw data—individual athletes or team administrators and coaches? Naturally, concerns about privacy have quickly emerged as well.
According to Adam Solander, a Washington, D.C. attorney who represents several large sports clubs and data-analytics organizations, the United States currently has no rules prohibiting companies from acquiring and using player training data. He mentions that the White House is working on guidelines governing artificial intelligence and the use of personal data.
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Solander said that officials must find a practical compromise that offers individual security pertaining to personal data without limiting organizations and coaches from benefiting from the results of such technological development.
