Trusting tech in sport
This month’s Wimbledon tennis tournament has highlighted the sometimes controversial role of technology in sport.
The electronic line-calling system at the chamionships was accidentally switched off, meaning a shot by Sonay Kartal that landed out was missed.
Her opponent, Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, and the human umpire spotted it and the point was replayed before Pavlyuchenkova went on to win the match,
But the incident has continued to spark debate about the role of technology in sport.
In an article on the BBC Sport website, Professor Gina Neff, from Cambridge Univeristy, explained how our in-built sense of “fairness” might be why we’re reluctant to trust machines as much as humans.
She said: “The machine makes decisions based on the set of rules it’s been programmed to adjudicate. But people are really good at including multiple values and outside considerations as well – what’s the right call might not feel like the fair call.”
Tennis isn’t the only sport where technology is now used to make decisions. In football, a VAR – video assistant referee – is used and the Hawk-Eye system has become part of international cricket.
Professor Neff added: “It’s the intersection between people and systems that we have to get right. We have to use the best of both to get the best decisions.”
