AI to erase abusive posts to athletes at Paris Olympics: IOC

LAUSANNE: The International Olympic Committee will deploy AI in order to block any abuse on social media directed at 15,000 athletes and officials at the Paris Olympics next month, President Thomas Bach said on Friday.

The Games are being staged amid ongoing wars in Ukraine, following Russia’s invasion in 2022, and between Hamas and Israel in Gaza - events that have already led to cases of abuse on social media.

The Olympics kick off on July 26 with more than 10,500 athletes competing across 32 sports, and is expected to generate more than half a billion social media engagements during the 16 days of the event, according to the IOC.

“The IOC will use AI at Paris in different areas,” Bach told a press conference. “One is safeguarding, since we expect half a billion social media posts during these Games. If someone were to take only one second to read each post it would take them 16 years to go through,” he said.

“The IOC will instead provide a pro-active AI safeguarding tool to protect athletes from cyberabuse. This AI tool offers extensive monitoring, covering 15,000 athletes and officials. This automatically erases abusive posts to shield athletes.”