New study finds out AI is better than ‘Jurgen Klopp’

Are we really there already? The era where Artificial intelligence (AI) automatically replaces human beings in every regard, including football?

A groundbreaking study has revealed that artificial intelligence (AI) football tactics outshine those devised by humans, raising the possibility of AI-driven coaching replacing traditional managerial roles in the future.

Conducted by Google DeepMind, the study’s findings suggest that AI-generated strategies are significantly more effective than those crafted by human coaches.

In an analysis of over 7,000 corner kicks taken by Jurgen Klopp’s Liverpool team, Google DeepMind’s coaching tool, TacticAI, developed innovative routines that caught the attention of Premier League analysts.

During the study, analysts from Liverpool FC were presented with various corner kick set-ups, unaware of which were generated by TacticAI.

Astonishingly, they favored 90 percent of the strategies proposed by the AI coach, out of a total of 50, signaling a remarkable success rate.

Zhe Wang, a researcher at Google DeepMind, hailed TacticAI as a pioneering step toward the development of next-generation AI assistants for football.

Wang explained that TacticAI not only accurately predicts the first receiver after a corner kick but also assesses the likelihood of a shot resulting from the play.

The tool’s ability to produce tactical variations that enhance performance while appearing indistinguishable from real scenarios impressed experts.

Furthermore, Wang and his team envision TacticAI expanding its scope beyond corner kicks to other set-pieces like throw-ins, with potential applications in various sports.