Google DeepMind's New AI Assistant Helps Elite Soccer Coaches Get Even Better (technologyreview.com) 16
Soccer teams are always looking to get an edge over their rivals. Whether it's studying players' susceptibility to injury, or opponents' tactics -- top clubs look at reams of data to give them the best shot of winning. They might want to add a new AI assistant developed by Google DeepMind to their arsenal. From a report: It can suggest tactics for soccer set-pieces that are even better than those created by professional club coaches. The system, called TacticAI, works by analyzing a dataset of 7,176 corner kicks taken by players for Liverpool FC, one of the biggest soccer clubs in the world. Corner kicks are awarded to an attacking team when the ball passes over the goal line after touching a player on the defending team. In a sport as free-flowing and unpredictable as soccer, corners -- like free kicks and penalties -- are rare instances in the game when teams can try out pre-planned plays.
TacticAI uses predictive and generative AI models to convert each corner kick scenario -- such as a receiver successfully scoring a goal, or a rival defender intercepting the ball and returning it to their team -- into a graph, and the data from each player into a node on the graph, before modeling the interactions between each node. The work was published in Nature Communications today. Using this data, the model provides recommendations about where to position players during a corner to give them, for example, the best shot at scoring a goal, or the best combination of players to get up front. It can also try to predict the outcomes of a corner, including whether a shot will take place, or which player is most likely to touch the ball first.
TacticAI uses predictive and generative AI models to convert each corner kick scenario -- such as a receiver successfully scoring a goal, or a rival defender intercepting the ball and returning it to their team -- into a graph, and the data from each player into a node on the graph, before modeling the interactions between each node. The work was published in Nature Communications today. Using this data, the model provides recommendations about where to position players during a corner to give them, for example, the best shot at scoring a goal, or the best combination of players to get up front. It can also try to predict the outcomes of a corner, including whether a shot will take place, or which player is most likely to touch the ball first.
*YAWN* (Score:3)
I want to see the AI get smacked around. I think it will be funny.
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the AI can fake an dive
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Re: want to see AI get smacked around (Score:1)
That's just Battlebots without remote human drivers.
Those bots are already roughly $30k* apiece. Requiring onboard AI may jack them into the $100k range. But it would be fun to see expensive motherboards shattered into confetti. It would give new meaning to "let the chips fall where they may"...or fly.
* Most teams make at least two, to have a spare, which creates some economy of scale. If they just made one, the price would be like $50k each. There are a few low-end ones, but those are unlikely to win the
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Let me know when this gets to the real football.
Ah so you mean rugger instead of soccer.
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Rugby is just an excuse to film gay porn and sell ticket to it.
Not Really AI (Score:1)
(Of course, there are those who state that all of what we now call "AI" is actually nothing more than sophisticated statistical analysis._
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
ssshhh, please, don't trigger the definition debate yet yet yet again.
Now.... (Score:2)
Or, at least have the time fixed and actually end when the clock runs out...
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> Let me know when AI can make soccer more interesting...
Don't need fancy tech, just make the goal box about 30% wider. 'Murican's like offense.
Until⦠(Score:1)
What about (Score:5, Interesting)
Can it predict and tell when a player is faking their injury? Because that's what I hate about soccer and basketball the most. Bunch of divas and actors instead of actual players (in men's pro soccer anyway, the women are badasses).
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They should be suspended for several games if they fake more than once, and a big fine for the first.
Only drawback is the (Score:3)
...AI assumes you have 3 legs.
One of my soccer player students asks this... (Score:1)
Is the ai telling you the best way to play with tactics, formations, etc. or is it just telling you which existing tactic works the best from successful teams? Huge difference in the data set from a Premier League team to some random high school team for example.