NEVER AUTOMATE SPORTS

I remember some months ago when I wrote on a similar prompt here in the hive learners community, I talked about how AI can never replace athletes and sports entertainment, but now after seeing a lot of development to the AI program and how it's almost certain that it's impossible for AI to replace sports entertainment. The creators of these AI systems are trying to creep into the sports entertainment industry by using Artificial intelligence and enhance training sessions and see how AI robots can replicate or even do better than humans in terms of skills, but from all indications that project would just end up in the mud because truth be told, who wants to watch robots race themselves or play football, or fight wrestling.

Image by freepik

I've seen them trying to promote this project by using stars like Lionel Messi and Christiano Ronaldo to play against AI and see how interesting that would be. At the end of the day no one celebrates when the AI scores, but everyone is happy when the athletes score a goal. Overtime no one wants to watch these athletes play against AI and I know this by the drop in viewership of their promotions. The reason why it dropped isn't far from the fact that when AI plays it's no longer a competition. A competition can only happen when two people of equal strength find different ways to achieve their goals. First of all an AI is not a person, and secondly it's strength is static making it not equal with humans.

Humans get tired, so imagine a game of football where AI play against humans for 90 minutes. It will be utterly unfair because at some point, the human athlete is bound to get tired. It's just as unfair as women playing against men in professional football. This is not to prove any gender point, but just to state the difference in strengths. I remember watching the football star Nermar Jr and another athlete play against 11 professional women's football players. Nermar Jr and his teammates did not have a goalkeeper yet they won 5:4 playing in an handicapped match. Now imagine how a team of 11 men will play against 11 AI robots and stand a chance of winning.

Image by freepik

The best I can anticipate for AI in the sports entertainment industry is to continue to be a means of training for professional athletes and nothing more. This will mean that sports has only been enhanced with AI without necessarily losing the place of humans in it. We humans may be imperfect in a lot of things, but in that imperfection lies our beauty. We may create something greater than our minds can handle, but you see that joy when people gather to watch sports, it can never be created or bought. I'm trying to imagine how watching Two perfect Robots play against each other would give me joy, or watching how AI decemates humans in a sporting activity would be enjoyed. This just shows that there are things AI can never replace.

THIS IS MY RESPONSE TO HIVE LEARNER'S PROMPT FOR WEEK 116 EPISODE 2