Photo credit: Alibaba Group
The Olympic Games Paris 2024 drew to a close earlier this week, but we’re still buzzing about what Alibaba Group’s cloud and artificial intelligence technology achieved inside and outside the sporting arenas.
Over 19 days of competition, Alibaba’s innovations helped make Olympic history and engage spectators near and far with the spirit of the Games.
“Alibaba plays an essential role when it comes to supporting technology during the Olympic Games, greatly increasing the efficiency and sustainability of Olympic Games operations,” said Thomas Bach, President of the International Olympic Committee (IOC).
In collaboration with the IOC, Alibaba Cloud powered a shift to cloud broadcasting, while its digital tools measured energy consumption and will help the IOC manage its archives going forward.
“The Olympic Games has been an invaluable global platform for Alibaba to showcase our cloud and AI technology,” said Alibaba Group Chairman Joe Tsai.
Keep scrolling to count down Alibaba’s top innovations from Paris 2024
#5: Sports Go Virtual
Alibaba Cloud debuted an AI-infused virtual boxing program during the Olympics, enabling people to face off in a virtual ring and land knockout blows with VR headsets.
The company’s large language model Qwen powered real-time match commentary in English and French that could analyze players’ moves and predict their performance in the next round.
Alibaba’s exhibition at the Champs-Elysées hosted the boxing experience, in addition to a virtual avatar lab where passersby could create digital doubles with customized makeup, clothing and more.
Boxing and shopping not your style? Spectators at three Olympic venues could also try their (virtual) hand at beach volleyball, archery, judo and wrestling. Alibaba Cloud technology converted their photos into animated videos of them scoring an ace serve, hitting a bull’s eye or pinning an opponent.
#4: AI + Archiving
Paris 2024 may be in the rearview mirror, but Alibaba’s partnership with the IOC continues to bear fruit.
This week, Alibaba Cloud and the IOC launched a Media Archiving AI solution to help organize, store and retrieve the IOC’s extensive collection of media files, including images, videos and audio content.
“Our cloud-based AI initiatives are designed to help transform the experience for media professionals and the global followers of the Olympic Games,” said Selina Yuan, President of International Business, Alibaba Cloud Intelligence.
The archival tool has already compiled memorable moments during the Paris 2024 boxing and archery events, and will be used by media professionals to boost content search efficiency going forward.
#3: Green Platform
Alibaba Cloud’s Energy Expert sustainability platform measured and analyzed electricity consumption during the Olympics, and will do the same during the Paralympics.
Organizers were able to get a better understanding of electricity consumption, power demand contingency, onsite weather conditions and capacity at venues like Bercy arena below.
Energy Expert was deployed across operational areas, gathering real-time electricity consumption data from broadcast and media working areas, technology operational spaces and a host of other temporary operational spaces.
“The data-driven insight produced by Energy Expert will help us learn from each Games edition, and apply that knowledge intelligently to make future events even more energy efficient,” Ilario Corna, the IOC’s Chief Information and Technology Officer, said.
#2: Revamped Replays
Paris 2024 viewers experienced the action and glory in greater depth and detail than ever before thanks to a multi-camera replay system developed by Alibaba Cloud and the Olympic Broadcasting Service (OBS).
Footage was sent to the cloud, where it underwent spatial reconstruction and 3D rendering in real-time before being shared with broadcasters as replay clips.
Alibaba Cloud’s cloud-based AI technology powered this process, making it possible to produce thousands of 360-degree, frame-freezing slow-motion replays for events in gymnastics, basketball, tennis and more.
#1: Satellite to Cloud
While relay runners sprinted for gold on track, another type of baton change took place behind the scenes at Paris 2024. For the first time in Olympic history, cloud technology overtook satellite as the main method of remote distribution to broadcasters.
An upgraded broadcasting solution developed by Alibaba Cloud and OBS revolutionized how viewers around the world watch the Games. Cloud computing-based OBS Live Cloud was responsible for transmitting over two-thirds of booked remote services across 54 broadcasters.
In addition, the Content+ platform hosted on Alibaba Cloud simplified remote production workflow and slashed the physical footprint of Olympics broadcasting.
As a result, Paris 2024 had an International Broadcasting Centre 13% smaller than Tokyo 2020 and 23% smaller than Rio 2016.
