Almost six months on from a games in which a number of leading athletes shed light on the horrific abuse and threats they had suffered, UK Sport turns to tech
The government agency with responsibility for supporting the development of UK Olympians and Paralympians is to invest in an artificial intelligence tool to help detect and clamp down on the online abuse and threats targeted at athletes, PublicTechnology can reveal.
UK Sport wishes to deploy “an ‘always on’ AI technological solution… that monitors, removes and reports online abuse directed towards WCP-funded athletes and coaches”, according to recently released procurement documents. The World Class Programme (WCP) is a scheme which funnels millions of pounds of National Lottery funding into the identification and development of elite athletes in Olympic and Paralympic disciplines.
About 100 staff and 1,100 athletes currently participating in the programme will be covered by the protection offered by the AI system, according to UK Sport.
The agency, which operates as an arm’s-length body of the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, is seeking technology with “the capability to identify repeated abuse and/or threats towards any given individual”.
The tool should also offer “an escalation process to engage law enforcement” where necessary, the commercial specification states.
As well as monitoring and stamping out instances of abuse, the chosen tech supplier will be required “to work with UK Sport and partners to share findings and understand the type and frequency of abuse received by funded athletes and coaches”.
The use of automated technology is one of a number of measures being taken by UK Sport in response to the findings of a recent “scoping exercise” examining how to improve “support and safeguarding for athletes and coaches”.
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Similar tech platforms have previously been deployed by organisers during last summer’s Paris Olympics, while World Athletics has invested in tools offering round-the-clock protection for 25 of the globe’s leading athletes.
It is understood that UK Sport believes that its rollout of similarly “always-on AI” – covering hundreds of athletes, and lasting for the entire four-year duration of the new Olympic and Paralympic cycle – is the most ambitious such deployment to date.
Providers interested in bidding to fulfil the contract have until 17 February to do so, with the government agency hoping to enter into an agreement with the chosen supplier around 1 April. An estimated value of £30,000 is provided on the contract notice, but the detailed tender specification adds that “we assume that technological solutions for this project will work on a cost associated to the volume of open-source data analysed to ensure the effective delivery of the required services, [and it is] therefore, proving difficult for UK Sport to provide an indicative budget figure”.
‘Increased scrutiny’
During and after the Paris games, numerous high-profile athletes spoke out about the abuse – and, in some cases, death threats – with which they had been targeted.
The UK Sport contract notice reinforces the ongoing growth of the issue of online hate.
“The increasingly digital world we live in has fundamentally changed and impacted the world of sport,” it says. “In a crowded sporting ecosystem, Olympic and Paralympic sport challenges for reach and resonance across a four-year period. The role of an athlete has changed too, with social media platforms providing unprecedented access to elite athletes like never before. In capitalising on this fandom, athletes are now 24/7 brands, content creators, influencers, entrepreneurs, and advocates for a wide range of social causes. But with increased visibility and access, comes increased scrutiny. Scrutiny of our athlete’s performances, their ethnicities, gender, disabilities, the size and shape of their bodies and so forth. This sits alongside public scrutiny of selection decisions that performance directors and coaches undertake.”
The document adds: “We believe now is the time to act to better protect and safeguard funded athletes and coaches from online abuse.”
