The gymnastics world championships in Germany, the biggest gymnastics meet outside the Olympics, for the first time used an artificial intelligence system to evaluate athletes' performance. The gymnastics world championships in Germany, the biggest gymnastics meet outside the Olympics, for the first time used an artificial intelligence (AI) system to evaluate athletes' performance by measuring and analyzing skeletal positions, speed, and angles via three-dimensional laser sensors. International Gymnastics Federation president Morinari Watanabe envisions such robot judges eliminating human error and subjectivity from gymnastics contests; "this is a step toward the challenge of justice through technology," Watanabe said. At the world championships, the AI system was a means for human judges to confirm scores when gymnasts either formally contested their score, or the score widely deviated between judges. International Gymnastics Federation sports director Steve Butcher said all athlete information collected at the competition would be discarded at a predetermined expiration date, to address privacy concerns.

Scanning and computer-assisted judging may safeguard against the pitfalls of human judging. On the eve of the 2019 gymnastics world championships in Stuttgart, Germany, the 527 participating athletes were asked to consent to a scan by multiple laser sensors to create a precise, three-dimensional image of their bodies. Those images, in turn, are being used to improve the accuracy of a so-called "judging support system," developed by Japanese IT giant Fujitsu, that's being used for the first time in the competition. The expectation, pending approval by the International Olympic Committee, is that the technology -- in which artificial intelligence helps human judges score gymnastics routines -- will be used at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. And it may presage the day when computers replace human judges entirely in the largely subjective sport, although that is not the plan "for now," officials said.