A.I. Judging at the 2023 World Championships: The Future of Gymnastics or Just Another Risk?

Wednesday - January 17 2024, 00:11 UTC - 10 months ago

At the 2023 World Championships, A.I. technology was used for scoring in gymnastics for the first time on every apparatus. This technology is meant to assist judges in reviewing routines and aims to make the sport more fair and transparent for viewers and gymnasts. JSS, the system used, had previously been used on select apparatuses at the 2019 World Championships. This marks a major step for the sport, but also raises questions about the role of A.I. in judging and the potential for bias elimination in gymnastics.

In the highly competitive world of gymnastics, every point can make the difference between winning and losing. That's why the use of A.I. technology in judging at the 2023 World Championships in Antwerp, Belgium was a major talking point. The International Gymnastics Federation (FIG) first introduced the Judging Support System (JSS) at the 2019 World Championships on select apparatuses, but the 2023 event marked the first time it was used on every apparatus in a competition .

Atop the high bar, where only one spot remained for the 2024 Paris Olympics, Croatia's Tin Srbić and Brazil's Arthur Nory Mariano were neck and neck, both vying for that coveted spot that would solidify their Olympic dreams. Srbić completed a clean routine, with precision and skill, and was met with cheers as he stuck his landing. But when his score came in, a 14.500, Srbić was not elated like everyone expected .

Instead, he questioned whether the judges had made a mistake that could cost him a medal at Worlds. This time, however, the judgement would come not from a human, but from an artificial intelligence system.