In The NoCo

Why AI may soon be used to help judges and referees call professional sports

By In The NoCo,

Published July 30, 2025 at 5:40 AM MDT

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Australian Scotty James soars above crowds in the superpipe at X Games Aspen in Aspen, CO, Friday, Jan. 27, 2023. — The Owl AI predicted correctly that Scotty James would take the gold in the snowboarding half-pipe at this year's winter X Games. The new artificial intelligence technology is being promoted by X Games CEO Jeremy Bloom.

A new kind of commentator made its debut during the snowboarding competition at this year’s Winter X Games in Aspen. It's called The Owl AI – and it’s powered by artificial intelligence.

The Owl AI demonstrated its ability by predicting the snowboarding half-pipe podium lineup, announcing in a cool male voice: “Third place Ayumu Hirano. Second Yuto Totsuka. And for the top spot Scotty James.”

The prediction turned out to be exactly right.

This new technology is being promoted by Boulder resident and X Games CEO Jeremy Bloom. In addition to predicting athlete performance, Bloom says The Owl AI will help make sports more fair by improving judging and refereeing. He recently launched a business to bring the technology to all kinds of sports.

Colorado Sun reporter Jason Blevins recently wrote about The Owl AI, how it was used in The X Games, and how it might be transformative for other sports.

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In The NoCo

KUNC's In The NoCo is a daily slice of stories, news, people and issues. It's a window to the communities along the Colorado Rocky Mountains. The show brings context and insight to the stories of the day, often elevating unheard voices in the process. And because life in Northern Colorado is a balance of work and play, we celebrate the lighter side of things here, too.

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Ariel Lavery

Ariel Lavery grew up in Louisville, Colorado and has returned to the Front Range after spending over 25 years moving around the country. She co-created the podcast Middle of Everywhere for WKMS, Murray State University’s NPR member station, and won Public Media Journalism awards in every season she produced for Middle of Everywhere. Her most recent series project is "The Burn Scar", published with The Modern West podcast. In it, she chronicles two years of her family’s financial and emotional struggle following the loss of her childhood home in the Marshall Fire.

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Erin O'Toole

As the host of KUNC’s news program and podcast In The NoCo, I work closely with our producers and reporters to bring context and diverse perspectives to the important issues of the day. Northern Colorado is such a diverse and growing region, brimming with history, culture, music, education, civic engagement, and amazing outdoor recreation. I love finding the stories and voices that reflect what makes NoCo such an extraordinary place to live.

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Brad Turner

Brad Turner is an executive producer in KUNC's newsroom. He manages the podcast team that makes In The NoCo, which also airs weekdays in Morning Edition and All Things Considered. His work as a podcaster and journalist has appeared on NPR's Weekend Edition, NPR Music, the PBS Newshour, Colorado Public Radio, MTV Online, the Denver Post, Boulder's Daily Camera, and the Longmont Times-Call.

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