Last week, somewhere amid the World Cup frenzy, a now-viral video circulated of Norwegian striker Erling Haaland mid-mouthed in a restaurant, glancing left and flinching at his own reflection. One post on sharing the video racked up more than 31 million views in mere days. But here’s the thing: It isn’t him. Fact checkers traced … Read more
To casual soccer viewers, the game may look like it always has—same green field, 22 players, a referee, and the familiar rhythm of play unfolding over 90 minutes. The changes are only visible if you look beneath the familiar surface. What appears to be a traditional match is now supported by layers of tracking systems, … Read more
The sheer scale of data being recorded at this summer’s World Cup is unprecedented. FIFA, the tournament organizer, will track around 150 million data points per match. Inside the ball alone, sensors monitoring IMUs (Inertial Measurement Units) will log 500 movements per second to trace the ball’s motion. If that sounds excessive, Patrick Lucey can … Read more
You got a World Cup ticket. It arrived in your inbox with a QR code, professional branding, and a confirmation email that looked like the real thing. Unfortunately, it wasn’t. For years, spotting a scam was relatively simple. A suspicious email address, broken English, or an obvious typo were often enough to raise suspicion. But … Read more
Brian Barrett: Noah, you are a celebrated, venerated national security journalist. You are. You have covered national security for a long time and you have covered, for lack of a better word, real spy stuff. You’ve been deep in it. How does that compare to this in terms of source handling in terms of the … Read more
Slowly but surely, artificial intelligence is finding its way into sports. The latest venue? This year’s World Cup, where Google will be partnering with the defending champions Argentina to showcase Gemini on and off the pitch. The agreement with the Argentine Football Association (AFA) makes Gemini the main global sponsor of the national team. As … Read more
Ace is a robot that aims high: It wants to become the world champion of table tennis. It was developed by Sony AI researchers who, in a new study published in Nature, have shown how this robot, equipped with artificial intelligence, has faced some high-level athletes, holding its own in matches played according to the … Read more
JioStar has ended its broadcast agreement with a local partner in Bangladesh, a move that means the Indian Premier League (IPL) will not be shown in the country this season, according to a Reuters report.The earlier ban in Bangladesh on broadcasting IPL followed tensions between the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) and the Board of Control … Read more
During the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris, 5G and 4K were the leading technologies available to many viewers. There was some AI, but it was mostly used for athletes’ benefit. For the 2026 Milano Cortina Winter Games there will be more technology than ever, for both athletes and fans. Much of that technology has never … Read more
USA Today’s Fantasy Football sleepers to watch USA TODAY’s Joe Rivera, Tom Viera, and Jacob Camenker break down why Dak Prescott and Dalton Kincaid headline bold sleeper picks. Sports Seriously You already have your league set up. Now it’s time to assemble a championship-caliber fantasy football team. Whether you’re in a snake draft or a … Read more