X Games CEO Jeremy Bloom announced today that The Owl, an AI games judge the company debuted at the Aspen X Games, is spinning off into its own platform as The Owl AI. It’s doing so with $11 million in seed funding. Bill Maris’s S32 led the round, with Menlo Ventures and Susa Ventures participating. The company also announced that Josh Gwyther, formerly head of AI at Google Cloud, would join as CEO.
The Owl AI is an end-to-end AI platform designed to offer an unbiased eye to judged sports. At its “beta” appearance at the X Games Aspen, it successfully predicted podium finishes for the Men’s Snowboard SuperPipe. In addition to real-time scoring, the platform also purports to enhance the experience for fans by offering localized commentary and intelligent insights.
In an interview with GamesBeat, Bloom told GamesBeat that The Owl was developed in part because of errors in judging or refereeing within sports. “We’re all human, and sometimes humans get it wrong. Having technology at these events to help ensure accuracy is really important for sports fans. It’s important for the leagues, the teams, and the cities that care so deeply for these sports.” The other advantage is that the Owl can offer scoring and critical insights to players who might not otherwise have access to strong coaching.
Bringing AI into live sporting events
Gwyther also told GamesBeat training the AI is similar to training a human for a judging position. “It’s a lot of examples and a lot of historical data, along with the general knowledge model, to get expert level judging… A lot of what we built can be reused for multiple sports. It’s really just that portion of the model that understands the nuances of that sport and the data set to go into judging and critiquing that we can swap out, but the majority of the infrastructure stays the same.”
Andy Harrison, S32 CEO and general partner, said in a statement, “At S32, we invest in bold ideas led by visionary teams and Owl AI is exactly that. By fusing elite athletic insight with cutting-edge AI, Jeremy and Josh are building more than just a new layer of fairness in sports — they’re reshaping how the world experiences competition. We’re proud to back a platform that elevates the integrity and accessibility of global sport.”
Bloom added, “We’re excited to have the second debut for The Owl at the Summer X Games in Salt Lake City this weekend — but more so excited to build this technology into the future to help make sure that every call and every game and every judged event happens in a purely objective way, and not a subjective way. We can hopefully improve the accuracy of these calls in the outcome of every sporting event.”