ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE IN SPORTS: AREAS OF APPLICATION, OPPORTUNITIES AND RISKS

Abstract

The integration of Artificial Intelligence (AI) technologies into the sports industry holds significant potential and creates new opportunities for improving various processes. Given the rapid development of AI technologies, it is crucial to understand both their potential benefits and challenges, as ensuring fairness and equal conditions for all participants remains a fundamental task.This article highlights the impact of AI on various aspects of sports activity, including the optimization and enhancement of athlete training, analysis of competitions and physical indicators, ensuring safety, health monitoring, injury prediction and risk reduction, personalized programs, automation of refereeing, development and improvement of tactical strategies for teams, fan interaction, creation of interactive and personalized broadcasts, and many other components.A generalized list of key areas of AI application in sports is presented, reflecting the diverse opportunities the technology offers for improving sports processes. It is emphasized that alongside the integration of AI technologies into the sports sector, certain risks and legal issues emerge, with the main challenges being ethical concerns such as fairness, confidentiality of athlete data, and ensuring equal conditions in sports. The article stresses the need for adherence to legal norms to ensure the ethical use of AI in sports, particularly through the regulation of the integration of this technology, guaranteeing data protection, eliminating biases in algorithms, and ensuring process transparency.The global context of AI usage is discussed, as it is already actively transforming major sports, gradually becoming an integral part of international tournaments, opening new horizons for all participants in sports processes on the world’s biggest sporting arenas, and creating more engaging and competitive events.Statistics are provided, demonstrating the significant growth of AI’s influence on the sports industry and predicting its continued and inevitable expansion.The implementation of AI in the sports industry holds considerable development potential; however, it requires careful regulation to protect the rights of athletes and other participants, ensuring fairness, integrity, accuracy, and equal conditions.