The first sports game was televised in the USA more than fifty years ago. Over the following decades television provided sports coaches with a wealth of information to analyse. By viewing recordings, they could study the number of passes received, tackles avoided, distances covered, speeds achieved and a host of (39) __________ factors relating to the performance of their teams or athletes. Most of this data, though , consisted of bare statistics without any meaningful context. (40) __________, the use of artificial intelligence (AI) is now enabling an alternative (41) __________ to coaching. AI means the development of computer systems that can perform tasks usually associated with human intelligence, such as decision making.
AI doesn't get tired, has extraordinary powers of vision, particularly for objects moving at speed, and is capable of making complex (42) __________very quickly. Research has shown that, particularly over a whole day's worth of events, computers are just as reliable as human judges when it comes to giving gymnasts a score. However, computer scientist Henri Simeonson has been quick to warn about some potential difficulties. In particular, Simeonson is concerned that AI is vulnerable to hackers, (43) _____ might be able to influence the outcome of a tournament.