Vonn hails use of AI to protect Olympic athletes

NEW YORK: US skiing great Lindsey Vonn has welcomed plans to use artificial intelligence to shield Olympic athletes from vicious online hate, recounting how she was “wildly harassed” before the 2018 Winter Games.

AI will be used at the 2024 Paris Olympics and the Paralympics to protect competitors from abuse.

The retired Vonn, speaking to AFP at the International Olympic Commitee’s AI Agenda launch at London’s Olympic Park on Friday, recounted her painful experiences when she was competing.

“Social media can be a very positive experience but unfortunately I’ve experienced the other side of it, specifically before the 2018 Olympics in Pyeongchang,” she said.

“I was wildly harassed, and people were sending me death threats and that was really hard for me.

“You have enough, as an athlete trying to perform at the Olympics, than to deal with people that you know want you to ski off a cliff.

“So the fact that AI will be able to in real time take these comments down and not only that but be able to help them prosecute people, that is huge because that will, I think, change the dynamics of social media.”

Vonn, 39, who won Olympic women’s downhill gold at the 2010 Games in Vancouver, said she wished she had had access to the technology that will be used in Paris.

“It would have saved me a lot of anxiety and emotional trauma,” she told the conference in London.

“It’s part of being in the public eye and of course we have to deal with that but if there’s a way to minimise that type of hate speech, that’s wildly beneficial to the athletes.” ‘Online violence’

Kirsty Burrows, head of the IOC’S Safe Sport Unit, said she was anticipating around half a billion social media posts in Paris.