アルペンスキーの元女王ボン氏、五輪選手保護するＡＩ活用歓迎

【ロンドンＡＦＰ＝時事】アルペンスキー女子の元名選手、リンゼイ・ボン（米国）氏は１９日、２０１８年平昌冬季五輪の前に自身が「ひどい嫌がらせ」を受けた記憶を振り返りつつ、人工知能（ＡＩ）を使って悪質なネット上の中傷から五輪選手を保護する計画を歓迎した。（写真は、アルペンスキー女子の元選手リンゼイ・ボン氏）
　英ロンドンのオリンピック公園ではこの日、国際オリンピック委員会（ＩＯＣ）が「五輪ＡＩアジェンダ」を発表し、２０２４年のパリ五輪・パラリンピックで暴言などから出場選手を守るためにＡＩが活用されることなどが明らかになった。
　イベントに出席したボン氏は、現役時代のつらい経験を思い起こしながら「ソーシャルメディアはとてもポジティブな経験になり得るけれど、特に２０１８年の平昌五輪の前には、残念ながら自分は反対の側面を経験した」「ひどい嫌がらせだった。殺すと脅迫されたりして本当につらかった」とＡＦＰの取材で明かした。
　当時は「五輪でのパフォーマンスを目指しているアスリートとして、崖から滑り落ちてほしいと思っている人たちに対処するだけで精いっぱいだった」といい、「だから、ＡＩがリアルタイムでこうしたコメントを削除するだけでなく、そういう人たちを告訴するのに役立つのは非常に大きい。なぜなら、それがソーシャルメディアの力学を変えることになると思うから」と語った。
　五輪で活用されるＡＩシステムは脅威を特定し、アスリートが見る前に悪意のあるコンテンツを削除するという。また、メンタルヘルスやウェルビーイングの担当スタッフを含め、大会の安全対策にも統合されている。【翻訳編集ＡＦＰＢＢＮｅｗｓ】
〔ＡＦＰ＝時事〕（2024/04/22-16:40）

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 Committee'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.
We know that social media and sport are inextricably linked and they present such fantastic opportunities for engagement but unfortunately we also know in this digital age that online violence is something that is pervasive and it's also inescapable, she said.
Burrows said the IOC was working with a technology provider to use AI to create and foster digitally safe environments in Paris.
The opportunity is available for 15,000 athletes at both the Olympic and Paralympic Games and 2,000 officials and coaches to utilise AI to capture millions of data points to be able to detect at scale, at pace in real time, targeted online abuse towards athletes and officials, she said.
The AI system will identify threats, with the aim to remove hateful content before athletes see it.
It is also integrated with safeguarding services at the Games, including mental health and wellbeing officers.
It's the first time where this AI solution will be used to cover so many people in so many sports, said Burrows.
I think it's really essential to better understand the prevalence of online abuse. We know it's happening but unfortunately we hear so many times people just know they have to get used to it, they have to try and ignore it but that isn't good enough when it's not fair or right... we want athletes to be able to thrive in sport.
She added: By utilising this AI we'll also be able to better understand online violence in sport, the typologies of violence and develop data-driven policies and interventions to help create physically and psychologically safe environments for athletes.