<p>Bengaluru: Remember ‘The Police’? You know, that English band from the 1970s which came up with the tear-jerker of a ballad called ‘Every Breath You Take’? Remember the opening lines to that song?</p><p>‘Every breath you take, And every move you make, Every bond you break, Every step you take, I'll be watching you. Every single day, And every word you say, Every game you play, Every night you stay, I'll be watching you.’</p><p>While the aforementioned lines are often hailed as part of one of the greatest love songs of all time, those very lines tend to sound intrusive - invasive even - to the tune of age, occasion and curiosity. </p>.India ready to say 'Hi' to 'Heyball'?.<p>If someone, if at all, in the business of Artificial Intelligence (AI) can afford to be forthright, they probably would not hesitate to use this nocturne as a background score to what could go on to become a rather nice, albeit traumatising, advertisement.</p><p>With such operational power in the world we live in, AI was naturally going to integrate itself into sport, and it was cute to begin with, what with its complementary nature, but slowly it is beginning to don a role which could well change the face of the industry in a not-so-distant future. </p><p>This, in essence, is what, Sukrut Gejji, the Chief Operating Officer of Game Theory (GT), is taking us through in showing off his latest offering: GOAT Vision. While the tech itself is impressive, it amuses to no end how available the AI-driven vision technology has become because this piece of tech - as part of the GT’s badminton court- was set up at a nondescript school in Indiranagar. </p>.<p>There are three cameras for each court and they capture 100,000 frames per hour of gameplay. That in and of itself might sound impressive, but when you take into account that over 150,000 games have been fed to the model, you can see how and why AI enables such depth in data. </p><p>This tech - again, available at a school near you - can give you data such as errors, winners, calories burnt, distance covered, playing intensity, and effort scores besides also providing highlights reels, best smashes, great rallies and so on. </p>.Can AI talk us out of conspiracy theory rabbit holes?.<p>“We use this tech in swimming, tennis, table tennis, squash, basketball, and we have excellent results,” says Gejji. “This piece of tech is great to get your basics in order. I don’t think this can replace a coach because that’s a more intuitive space, but it definitely can help coaches become better in their assessment of their students, and then help them bespoke programmes for each individual.”</p><p>Gejji isn’t wrong in the way he’s viewing this development for GOAT Vision and its offerings will naturally aid any coach in making better decisions to assist his player. However, with time, and as the machine begins to peel away the nuance of analysis and coaching, there is a fear of redundancy. </p><p>“This sentiment (redundancy) might come up if you don’t think of your job as intuitive,” seasoned cricket coach Chadrakant Pandit tells DH. “Coaching is very intuitive and no machine can replace that. I think it can be a good value add to my coaching, but I wouldn’t go beyond that.”</p>.<p>For every Pandit, there are numerous coaches, possibly in the mentality of catastrophizing, who insist that this tech will ruin the sanctity of the coaching process, and cricket itself. </p><p>England’s women’s cricket coach Jon Lewis isn’t one of them because he only recently used London-based PSi’s AI offering to assist in selecting a team. </p><p>“What data can do is give you an objective view of what could happen and what has happened previously. It will help with borderline decisions in terms of selection and match-ups,” he said earlier. “During the Ashes a couple of years ago, I had two very similar players to pick from and they both were in form and they were both very good, so I turned to AI to offer me a solution and it did.”</p>.<p>The Royal Challengers Bengaluru used AI and data analytics developed by the Indian Institute of Technology Madras (IIT Madras) to make team selections and assist their scouts, while still providing data to individuals for upscaling skills. </p><p>"The advantage is that our predictive data is updated after every ball based on the performance of each player,” says Raghunathan Rengaswamy (Dean, Global Engagement, IIT Madras, and Co-Founder, Gyan Data). “The algorithm we developed at IIT Madras is a unique AI engine that leverages the rich data collected historically in cricket and the extensive models developed. It shows an interesting analysis of the performance often missed by fans and cricket observers.”</p><p>A player scout of pedigree insisted that the biggest advantage of the technology was its assistance in his filtration process. </p>.AI can help India’s disaster mitigation and management system.<p>“We have 1.5 billion people, and a large number of those people play cricket. We also have to pick five foreign players so we have to look around the world as well. Just by this scouts have to look at millions of players to pick a squad of 25 or so,” says the scout on condition of anonymity. </p><p>“Now, we set the metrics for what we were looking for, the qualities, AI filters it to certain people. Moreover, it scours social media too, looking out for good talent.”</p><p><em>‘If so, isn’t AI doing your job?’</em></p><p>“Not really, my job is to pick the best in that. That’s still me picking the needle in the haystack. AI gives me a haystack. Before I used to deal with the whole village,” he offers. </p><p>Fair enough, but sports teams and players are already sensing an overreliance on technology for their solutions. Naturally, there are privacy concerns which come with how invasive the said technology is. </p><p>There’s also a concern about job displacement. But most of all, there are ethical considerations worth looking at because one cannot be too sure if AI works with the framework of fairness and transparency because it is only as good as the hands which feed it (data) so it will have its own biases too.</p><p>Let’s face it, the scope of AI across all verticals of sport is unfathomable at this moment, but there will come a time, soon, when will all seem a bit too contrived. Then what? Will we be left with the intuition to return to equilibrium?</p><p>‘Every breath you take, And every move you make…’</p>
<p>Bengaluru: Remember ‘The Police’? You know, that English band from the 1970s which came up with the tear-jerker of a ballad called ‘Every Breath You Take’? Remember the opening lines to that song?</p><p>‘Every breath you take, And every move you make, Every bond you break, Every step you take, I'll be watching you. Every single day, And every word you say, Every game you play, Every night you stay, I'll be watching you.’</p><p>While the aforementioned lines are often hailed as part of one of the greatest love songs of all time, those very lines tend to sound intrusive - invasive even - to the tune of age, occasion and curiosity. </p>.India ready to say 'Hi' to 'Heyball'?.<p>If someone, if at all, in the business of Artificial Intelligence (AI) can afford to be forthright, they probably would not hesitate to use this nocturne as a background score to what could go on to become a rather nice, albeit traumatising, advertisement.</p><p>With such operational power in the world we live in, AI was naturally going to integrate itself into sport, and it was cute to begin with, what with its complementary nature, but slowly it is beginning to don a role which could well change the face of the industry in a not-so-distant future. </p><p>This, in essence, is what, Sukrut Gejji, the Chief Operating Officer of Game Theory (GT), is taking us through in showing off his latest offering: GOAT Vision. While the tech itself is impressive, it amuses to no end how available the AI-driven vision technology has become because this piece of tech - as part of the GT’s badminton court- was set up at a nondescript school in Indiranagar. </p>.<p>There are three cameras for each court and they capture 100,000 frames per hour of gameplay. That in and of itself might sound impressive, but when you take into account that over 150,000 games have been fed to the model, you can see how and why AI enables such depth in data. </p><p>This tech - again, available at a school near you - can give you data such as errors, winners, calories burnt, distance covered, playing intensity, and effort scores besides also providing highlights reels, best smashes, great rallies and so on. </p>.Can AI talk us out of conspiracy theory rabbit holes?.<p>“We use this tech in swimming, tennis, table tennis, squash, basketball, and we have excellent results,” says Gejji. “This piece of tech is great to get your basics in order. I don’t think this can replace a coach because that’s a more intuitive space, but it definitely can help coaches become better in their assessment of their students, and then help them bespoke programmes for each individual.”</p><p>Gejji isn’t wrong in the way he’s viewing this development for GOAT Vision and its offerings will naturally aid any coach in making better decisions to assist his player. However, with time, and as the machine begins to peel away the nuance of analysis and coaching, there is a fear of redundancy. </p><p>“This sentiment (redundancy) might come up if you don’t think of your job as intuitive,” seasoned cricket coach Chadrakant Pandit tells DH. “Coaching is very intuitive and no machine can replace that. I think it can be a good value add to my coaching, but I wouldn’t go beyond that.”</p>.<p>For every Pandit, there are numerous coaches, possibly in the mentality of catastrophizing, who insist that this tech will ruin the sanctity of the coaching process, and cricket itself. </p><p>England’s women’s cricket coach Jon Lewis isn’t one of them because he only recently used London-based PSi’s AI offering to assist in selecting a team. </p><p>“What data can do is give you an objective view of what could happen and what has happened previously. It will help with borderline decisions in terms of selection and match-ups,” he said earlier. “During the Ashes a couple of years ago, I had two very similar players to pick from and they both were in form and they were both very good, so I turned to AI to offer me a solution and it did.”</p>.<p>The Royal Challengers Bengaluru used AI and data analytics developed by the Indian Institute of Technology Madras (IIT Madras) to make team selections and assist their scouts, while still providing data to individuals for upscaling skills. </p><p>"The advantage is that our predictive data is updated after every ball based on the performance of each player,” says Raghunathan Rengaswamy (Dean, Global Engagement, IIT Madras, and Co-Founder, Gyan Data). “The algorithm we developed at IIT Madras is a unique AI engine that leverages the rich data collected historically in cricket and the extensive models developed. It shows an interesting analysis of the performance often missed by fans and cricket observers.”</p><p>A player scout of pedigree insisted that the biggest advantage of the technology was its assistance in his filtration process. </p>.AI can help India’s disaster mitigation and management system.<p>“We have 1.5 billion people, and a large number of those people play cricket. We also have to pick five foreign players so we have to look around the world as well. Just by this scouts have to look at millions of players to pick a squad of 25 or so,” says the scout on condition of anonymity. </p><p>“Now, we set the metrics for what we were looking for, the qualities, AI filters it to certain people. Moreover, it scours social media too, looking out for good talent.”</p><p><em>‘If so, isn’t AI doing your job?’</em></p><p>“Not really, my job is to pick the best in that. That’s still me picking the needle in the haystack. AI gives me a haystack. Before I used to deal with the whole village,” he offers. </p><p>Fair enough, but sports teams and players are already sensing an overreliance on technology for their solutions. Naturally, there are privacy concerns which come with how invasive the said technology is. </p><p>There’s also a concern about job displacement. But most of all, there are ethical considerations worth looking at because one cannot be too sure if AI works with the framework of fairness and transparency because it is only as good as the hands which feed it (data) so it will have its own biases too.</p><p>Let’s face it, the scope of AI across all verticals of sport is unfathomable at this moment, but there will come a time, soon, when will all seem a bit too contrived. Then what? Will we be left with the intuition to return to equilibrium?</p><p>‘Every breath you take, And every move you make…’</p>