The Olympic Games have a powerful ability: to encourage people to watch sports they're unfamiliar with, and even to capture the attention of those not particularly interested in sports. So, how can all the questions viewers have be answered? Broadcasters are stepping up to the plate by requiring their commentary to be informative and educational. Many newcomers also turn to search engines to find answers. It's precisely in this area that the IOC aimed to position itself by developing "Olympic GPT."
Twelve languages to speak to the whole world
For the first time, fans were able to log on to the IOC website, always very busy during the Games, and ask their questions to this Olympic version of the popular GPT Chat platform. Want to understand ski mountaineering? Learn more about the history of the Olympics or an athlete's career? Find out the rules of a particular event format in alpine skiing or biathlon? The chatbot answers all questions immediately.
« Testing has shown that it can handle heavy traffic. The results are really very good. It's not 100% perfect, obviously, but it works very, very well. This is a first attempt. We'll see how it goes, but we think it's a worthwhile addition. "Twelve languages are available, which allows for coverage of a little over 85% of the world's population "and thus increase the reach of this new device."
The promise of reliable information
A unique feature of the project: this tool, developed with Olympic partner Alibaba, " is truly designed to provide highly accurate, impartial, and verified information on everything related to the Olympic Games " explains Yiannis Exarchos, wishing to guarantee a high level of reliability, whereas one generally finds " many errors and inaccuracies "on the Internet. Olympic GPT thus relies on the IOC database, which is subject to rigorous controls." Every athlete, every competition, every statistic is included. And everything is correct. This is what powers the system, not something that might have been randomly mentioned somewhere on the internet and then picked up by the system. »
Olympic GPT is also capable of providing real-time results, although with less responsiveness than other platforms. The results will usually appear ten minutes after the test ends. If you check other sources online, you can get them in as little as one minute. The difference is that our system is powered by confirmed official results. Here, you won't see any results that aren't entirely accurate. "A sign of seriousness in an era where more and more false information is circulating."
There is still room for improvement
Francs Jeux put him to the test… with mixed results. On February 14th, we asked him about biathlete Eric Perrot's Olympic record. A simple question, but Olympic AI failed to answer correctly, omitting his victory in the mixed relay and his silver medal in the individual event. It's no coincidence that it states at the very bottom that… The answers may be incomplete or inaccurate. "But some gaps in the net seemed largely avoidable.
On the other hand, the assistant also proves capable of providing relevant information: when asked about the number of medals won by Switzerland, he presents a complete list with the athlete's name, the sport, the event, and the date, highlighting several key facts. Franjo von Allmen became the first Swiss male skier to win three gold medals at a single Winter Olympics. Mathilde Gremaud successfully defended her Olympic slopestyle title, confirming her status as a freeskiing legend. Switzerland dominated the team alpine combined event, with two pairs on the podium. " he lists. Let's bet that this tool will be further improved by Los Angeles 2028.
