Israeli study shows bias in AI sports scouting platforms

JERUSALEM, June 7 — Israeli researchers have identified potential risks associated with the growing use of artificial intelligence (AI) to evaluate athletes and identify young sports talent, Israel’s Ben-Gurion University of the Negev said in a statement on Sunday. Published in Big Data and Cognitive Computing, the study examined advanced AI systems used to assess athletic performance and support talent identification programs, which increasingly rely on large datasets, video analysis, three-dimensional modeling, and machine learning algorithms to guide decisions across the sports industry. The results showed that algorithms trained on historical data may unintentionally reproduce existing social and economic biases.