In today's email:

🚗 Hendrick Motorsports uses AI for NASCAR race strategy and pit crew optimization

🎾 U.S. Open introduces AI-powered 3D tennis replays with chatbot commentary

🤖 Scientists train robot dog to play badminton against humans

📱 Startup turns smartphones into lab-grade movement analysis tools

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AI in Sports and Fitness

Model Health secures $1 million to revolutionize movement analysis through smartphones. The Belgian-American startup uses AI and biomechanics to provide clinics and trainers with lab-grade insights that previously required €100,000 worth of equipment. Using just two iOS devices and an app, practitioners can generate 3D models and analyze joint angles within minutes.

Hendrick Motorsports leverages eight years of AI experience to dominate NASCAR competition. The team's Technical Director revealed they use machine learning for race strategy and performance optimization, helping crew chiefs make critical real-time decisions about pit stops and tire strategy. AI also optimizes pit crew movements and motions for maximum efficiency during single-lug wheel changes.

The U.S. Open tennis tournament debuts AI technology that transforms matches into interactive 3D experiences. The system uses player tracking data to create animated replays featuring robot-like doppelgangers of tennis stars, complete with an AI commentator trained to provide insights while avoiding controversy. With 5 million chatbot interactions recorded, the technology complements the live tennis experience.

Scientists successfully train a robot dog to play competitive badminton against human opponents. The 110-pound "ANYmal" robot learned to coordinate whole-body movements with visual perception through reinforcement learning, achieving rallies of up to 10 shots. The robot adapts its movement patterns based on shuttlecock distance and develops strategies like galloping to extend its reach.

Comcast deploys AI-powered networks to revolutionize sports fan experiences across multiple venues. The company's AI-backed infrastructure powers features like multiview capabilities for watching four games simultaneously and real-time content creation at Denver Broncos games. Ten-gig circuits enable instant capture and broadcasting of player interviews and fan content throughout stadium displays.

🧰 Tools and Tips

• Candidate Screening is an AI-powered candidate screening tool.

• A fast growing competitor to Zapier, Make.com lets you visualize and build at speed - whether setting up a single process or transforming your entire business model.

• Motion is an AI-driven productivity platform that unifies calendar, task, project, and meeting management with smart automation and AI assistants.

• Plus AI for Google Slides™ is an AI presentation maker to create and edit presentations, directly in Google Slides.

What It Does: Turns your Google Photo into a six second video clip

How It Works:
Select a photo you want to turn into a video in the Create tab (found by clicking on the three dots in top right corner). Select Photo to Video and choose between two prompts: "Subtle movement" or "I'm feeling lucky."

Note:
Google Photos users get a limited number of generations every day. But subscribers to Google AI Pro ($20 a month) and Google AI Ultra ($200 a month) get higher daily limits.

In addition to the update launched today, Google Photos has pre-existing photo editing features using generative AI. This includes remixing photos into a new style, creating and editing collages, making a video highlight reel, turning photos into 3D images with Cinematic Photos, and animating still images into a GIF.

Beyond Sports: AI News Bytes

Apple is developing an AI-powered web search tool called "World Knowledge Answers" that will be integrated into Siri, aiming to compete directly with OpenAI and Perplexity AI. The search system will launch in spring as part of a major Siri overhaul.

OpenAI purchased Statsig for $1.1 billion, a product development startup that helps companies test features and use real-time data. The acquisition reflects OpenAI's aggressive expansion strategy following its recent $6.5 billion purchase of Jony Ive's AI devices startup.

Anthropic completed a massive Series F fundraising of $13 billion led by ICONIQ, valuing the company at $183 billion post-money. The Claude AI creator has seen explosive growth, with run-rate revenue reaching over $5 billion by August 2025.

Google Photos has upgraded its image-to-video feature with Veo 3, Google's advanced generative AI video model. Users can now turn their photos into videos with improved quality and realism.

A federal judge ruled that Google can keep its Chrome browser despite its illegal search monopoly, declining the Justice Department's request for a break-up. However, the judge did order Google to share some valuable search information with rivals.

Send us your AI sports image to [email protected] for next issue using the prompt: New baseball cap design

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