Robots are inventing new sports now

Each week, we spotlight a cool innovation recommended by some of the industry's top tech writers. This week's pick is an AI that's creating new sports.

A design firm used artificial intelligence to invent a new sport, said Anthony Ha at Tech ​Crunch. The digital agency, AKQA, which does work with Nike, fed data from about 400 different sports to a neural network with the question in mind, "Can we invent the next basketball or football?" The AI produced rules and concepts.

Some of the computer's ideas "were simply not feasible," including a game where "players pass a ball back and forth while in hot air balloons." But another, dubbed Speedgate, has potential. It involves teams of six playing on a field with "large gates, passing and kicking the ball through the gates (but avoiding the center gate)." AKQA creative director Whitney Jenkins likens it to "the best of rugby, soccer, ultimate frisbee, and croquet."

The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

Join more than 350,000 subscribers and keep yourself informed with a selection of The Week’s most interesting, enlightening and entertaining stories - plus daily puzzles.

Join more than 350,000 subscribers and keep yourself informed with a selection of The Week’s most interesting, enlightening and entertaining stories - plus daily puzzles.

Sign up