Alibaba Cloud, the digital intelligence and technology platform of Alibaba Group, leveraged its cloud technologies to drive a number of initiatives during the Olympic Games Paris 2024. These efforts were designed to enhance media professionals’ coverage of the Games and drive engagement among fans around the world through innovative applications.
“Alibaba plays a crucial role in supporting the Olympic Games with technology, significantly improving the efficiency and sustainability of operations. Our partnership extends beyond the Games, with Alibaba contributing to our Olympic AI programme, helping us responsibly harness the power of AI. These examples highlight Alibaba’s role as a key partner in shaping our digital future,” said Thomas Bach, President of the International Olympic Committee (IOC).
Improve multimedia resource management
In collaboration with the IOC, Alibaba Cloud has launched an AI-powered media archiving solution. This cloud-based tool offers advanced visual search capabilities, automatic content categorization, and AI-powered video production. The IOC’s AI-powered media archiving solution represents a significant advancement in sports media archiving. It automatically generates video highlights, identifies, and compiles memorable moments from sports such as boxing and archery during Paris 2024, helping media professionals enrich the viewing experience for a global audience.
Alibaba Cloud’s proprietary AI algorithms also streamline the indexing and categorization of Olympic audiovisual and photographic archives, improving search and optimizing media asset management workflows.
“We are delighted to support the IOC’s AI program, launched in April this year,” said Selina Yuan, President of Global Business at Alibaba Cloud Intelligence. “Our cloud-based AI initiatives aim to transform the experience of Olympic media professionals and fans around the world. We are committed to delivering innovations that make the Olympic Games more effective, engaging, sustainable and inclusive for all stakeholders.”
Introducing Smart Virtual Boxing
Alibaba Cloud showcased its Smart Virtual Boxing project at Alibaba Wonder Avenue (AWA). Using Alibaba Cloud’s proprietary LLM Qwen software, the project analyzes players’ movements and performances during virtual boxing matches, providing real-time commentary in English and French. It also predicts players’ performances in the next round, enhancing the viewer experience.
“Virtual sports are gaining popularity globally, increasing accessibility and encouraging diverse participation in sports,” Yuan added. “We are committed to extending the benefits of innovative technologies to traditional sports and esports.”
360 Degree Slow Motion Highlights
During the Paris 2024 Games, OBS Cloud, a collaboration between Olympic Broadcasting Services (OBS) and Alibaba Cloud, provided 360-degree slow-motion freeze-frame footage. The footage was processed in the cloud using Alibaba Cloud’s AI-powered computing capabilities, enabling live spatial reconstruction and real-time 3D rendering.
These replays offered a deeper understanding of crucial moments in the game and were available on OBS’s Content+ platform for full media analysis by all Media Rights Holders (MRHs).
Multi-camera replay systems have produced thousands of replay clips across a variety of sports including basketball, gymnastics, tennis, beach volleyball and rugby sevens.
The system is part of the new OBS Cloud 3.0 system, used as the primary method of remote content distribution for MRH’s Olympic broadcast coverage, including the Paris 2024 Opening Ceremony, which attracted tens of millions of viewers worldwide.
“Technologies like Alibaba Cloud help us tell the stories of the world’s best athletes and bring the world together in more exciting and inspiring ways. Partners like Alibaba who help us bring this dream to life are invaluable to us,” said Yiannis Exarchos, CEO of OBS.
Engaging Fans with Cloud Memento
To enhance the spectator experience, Alibaba Cloud launched Cloud Memento, an innovative tool that transforms static images of participants into immersive animated videos using AI technology. Olympic fans were able to experience this technology first-hand at iconic venues such as the Eiffel Tower Stadium, Champs de Mars Arena, and Les Invalides.
In addition to cheering on their favorite athletes, viewers could take home videos of themselves participating in Olympic sports, such as archery, beach volleyball, judo, and wrestling, created with Cloud Memento. The videos also featured historical landmarks like the Eiffel Tower, with 2D snapshots converted into dynamic animated videos that showcase complex athletic movements with remarkable consistency and continuity.
Alibaba Cloud also restored and colorized footage from the 1924 Paris Olympics, allowing contemporary audiences to experience these iconic moments with enhanced quality and vivid color.
The company also used its colorization technology to produce “To the Greatness of Her,” an eight-minute short film highlighting the evolution of gender equality in sports. The film, which features restored and colorized photographs of famous female athletes, was presented at Alibaba’s event in Paris.
Additionally, Alibaba Cloud helped the IOC deploy its data-driven sustainability solution, Energy Expert, to measure and analyze electricity consumption at competition venues during Paris 2024.
Using Alibaba Cloud’s cloud-based integrated intelligence and deep learning AI models, Energy Expert provided accurate analysis and site-specific forecasts, offering recommendations for optimizing energy demand to minimize energy waste during future Games.
