Wimbledon has an AI problem, but do tennis players only use technology as a scapegoat?
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- The AI-driven line calls of Wimbledon have replaced human judges
- Players such as Jack Draper and Emma Raducanu have expressed frustration about dubious calls
- Despite its precision, the AI system of Wimbledon has experienced a malfunctions that have also increased the return among fans
This year Wimbledon made the headlines by completely eliminating the judges of the human line, replacing them with an AI-driven system that is designed to make automated calls with pinpoint accuracy. But although the technology can get the most calls well, it also causes frustration among players and fans. Complaints have collapsed about missed or delayed calls, inaudible announcements and a lack of transparency when something goes wrong.
Hawk-Eye Live, a system that consists of a nest of high-speed cameras and AI processing, officer now all Line Calls from Wimbledon and is supposed to be incredibly accurate, to have the court more than people.
But the calls were not always as accurate or even as audible as they should be. You may not notice it on TV, where commentators fill the silence, but apparently the players struggled to hear the actual calls. Yue Yuan literally asked the referee during her match if someone could set up the volume of the AI.
Just ask Jack Draper, who, after a difficult loss for Marin Cilic, said he distrusted the accuracy of the AI in several cases. Emma Raducanu brought up a similar problem after losing a close game with Aryna Sabalenka. She made it clear that she thought one of the line calls was downright wrong, assuming when the AI said it wasn’t
Not to mention the fact that Sonay Kartal was about to win against Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, the AI system was just switched off. The All England club later apologized, proverb“It is now clear that the live ELC system, which worked optimally, was deactivated in the mistake of part of the side of the server for one game by those serving the system.”
AI Volley
Not every tournament uses AI. The French Open still retains human judges. It is a matter of power, as well as accuracy. If a referee makes a bad call, a player can challenge it. But Wimbledon’s new system is the judge. You cannot argue with a robot voice or claim that it was going away at the wrong time. The All England club raises the system as fairer than Human Line jury members. Whether that is true or not, the displaced line judges are understandably upset. More than 300 of them were cut this year and some showed up outside the site with protest signs.
The judges of the AI line did not come out of nowhere. Wimbledon has been in the direction of AI judgment and other tournaments have already dumped line jury members. But maybe it’s not just about the machines. Wimbledon is a strange tournament, full of ritual. When you remove the line tours and practice them arm Movements, it takes away an important element of the tournament. And without the human flourishing that makes the tournament fun, Wimbledon is simply brainless swatting of a ball between two rackets.
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