Ensuring ethical AI use in modern sport

The rise of advanced technologies like artificial intelligence (AI) continues to impact the world – including in professional sports, with each league identifying several unique ways the technology could be used.

But AI in sports does not come without criticism. Already in 2021, the researcher and sports law expert Alberto Carrio Sampedro published an article in Diagoras: International Academic Journal of Olympic Studies Addressing the many ethical concerns of AI in sports. While he concluded that there is no reason to reject AI systems in sport, he argued that a clear ethical control framework is necessary to avoid unforeseeable consequences.

“The principle of respect for human autonomy is a basic ethical requirement,” Sampedro explained in his contribution. “Accordingly, the use of AI systems in sport must be human-centered, promote meaningful experiences in sport and physical education, and must not interfere with human creativity and enjoyment of sport and competition. On the other hand, this principle also requires human oversight of AI… and ultimate control over its application in sports administration.”

AI tools can generate content for blogs, social media posts, and even informative articles in minutes, but these intelligence systems cannot truly conduct constructive exploration or think creatively. As coaches and organizations explore the applications of AI in sports, with major groups such as the NFL, MLB and NBA integrating technology into various processes, tools such as AI detectors will be necessary to maintain ethical standards in the industry.

Although AI detectors are already gaining popularity, their widespread use is still evolving. These detectors themselves are not error-free, but advances in natural language processing will likely make the detectors quite reliable in the future. As technology advances in these tools, they will be able to perform more complex content analysis.

For many elite athletes, deep fakes are becoming another problem area where an AI detector could be used. AI-generated images and videos can lead to a scandal if the viewer does not recognize them as AI, damaging the athlete’s credibility and reputation. This can be destructive for the entire organization. AI detectors are an integral part of this system, helping to maintain high standards of quality, authenticity and ethics in sport and beyond. These multifunctional tools act as regulators and improvers of digital content by identifying unacceptable content and providing assistance in resolving content issues to protect the integrity of the sports industry in the future.

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