“I CALL ON ALL AFRICAN NOCS TO GET ON BOARD”
This year, the International Olympic Committee launched the Olympic Agenda for Artificial Intelligence. This is a major step forward, a revolution that should enable us to take our technological initiative to the next level.
Sport in Africa must embrace this change.
We must therefore be the key players in this revolution. The Olympic Agenda for Artificial Intelligence will undoubtedly lead us in this direction, pending a global strategy for AI and sport.
We will have to navigate between the opportunities and snags of Artificial Intelligence.
However, it will be necessary to take full advantage of this digital technology. The International Olympic Committee is paving the way by demonstrating how artificial intelligence can impact sport and how the global Olympic and Sport Movement aims to promote the responsible use of AI.
I call on all the 54 African National Olympic Committees to get on board. Some NOCs have set up platforms for budding talent identification, training and preparation of athletes. This innovative approach should serve as an example to the other NOCs.
With Artificial Intelligence, we will use digitisation to develop sport and offer young Africans more room to develop, and opportunities to break out of the vicious circle of poverty and misery.
Indeed, Artificial Intelligence should be an additional asset for us, not something to be concerned about or even dreaded.
Today’s world warrants Africa as a whole to think differently. We are blowing with the wind, but without losing sight of our African and Olympic values, which will go hand in hand with this adaptation to Artificial Intelligence.
It is a game-changing challenge, a potential that will change sport, from athlete training to judging and refereeing, together with the fight against doping, spectator experience and solidarity in sport.
The African Olympic Movement must take full advantage of Artificial Intelligence, understand the risks involved and harness all its potential.
The Olympic Games Paris 2024, in which our athletes will be competing this year, have included in their organisation a whole range of environmental protection issues and, even more importantly, the strategic shift towards digitisation of all organisational and sporting approaches in a bid to guarantee their uniqueness, as desired by the IOC.
We live in an age of speed. The rapid development of digital technologies and Artificial Intelligence in particular depends on our ability to harness this new intelligence and use it to drive development.
Each NOC is a driver of development and must make progress in this area without wavering.
I strongly urge you to follow the Olympic Agenda for AI closely to fully grasp its import!
It is always together that we will rise to the daunting challenges of tomorrow.
