The X Games will experiment with using artificial intelligence to judge halfpipe runs this week in Aspen, employing cutting-edge technology that could eventually influence how subjectively judged sports are scored.
As a trendsetter in action sports, the X Games, under the leadership of its new CEO and freestyle skiing legend Jeremy Bloom, has partnered with Google founder Sergey Brin to develop this technology.
Utilizing Google Cloud tools, including Vertex AI, Bloom believes this experiment could revolutionize judging in halfpipes and potentially extend to slopestyle courses, skating rinks, and any contest where judges score performances.
“Subjective sports often face the challenge of human error, even at their best,” said Bloom, a former freestyle skier at two Olympics and a college football player at Colorado. “Mistakes in judging can have significant consequences. What if we could enhance judges' abilities, allowing them to see things beyond the human eye, with technology assisting them?”
The possibility of judging errors looms over every high-stakes contest, and snowboarding, despite its laid-back vibe, is no exception. At the last Winter Games in Beijing, the sport narrowly avoided a scandal in the men’s halfpipe final. Japan’s Ayumu Hirano executed the sport’s most difficult trick—a triple cork—during a strong run but was initially ranked behind another rider who didn’t perform the trick.
Snowboarding experts expressed outrage on social media. Had Hirano not repeated the trick in his third round, his second-round score wouldn’t have secured the gold medal he eventually won.
In another instance, Canadian slopestyler Max Parrot admitted to not grabbing his board during a gold-medal-winning run, a key element judges missed but could have been caught with a detailed video review. The AI at the X Games this week won’t affect official scoring but will demonstrate future possibilities. Bloom stated that thousands of hours of halfpipe footage and judging criteria have been integrated into a system that will be shown on TV broadcasts and made available to live judges.
The AI will be programmed to observe halfpipe practice and predict the top three finishers. It will also be used to judge and commentate on three different riders as they navigate the halfpipe.
“It’s early days, but the technology is mind-blowing,” Bloom said. “It’s incredible what it can achieve with clear guidance.”
In snowboarding, judges evaluate elements like jump height, trick difficulty, and execution, ultimately delivering scores on a 100-point scale based on how runs compare to each other.
This approach differs from sports like figure skating or gymnastics, where individual tricks have specific point values. Bloom emphasizes that all these factors are considered in the experiment.
He does not foresee a future without human judges.
“I don’t think this replaces the judges,” Bloom said, “but I think it empowers them to ensure objectivity.”
