• Enter Slide 1 Title Here

    This is slide 1 description. Go to Edit HTML of your blogger blog. Find these sentences. You can replace these sentences with your own words.

  • Enter Slide 2 Title Here

    This is slide 2 description. Go to Edit HTML of your blogger blog. Find these sentences. You can replace these sentences with your own words.

  • Enter Slide 3 Title Here

    This is slide 3 description. Go to Edit HTML of your blogger blog. Find these sentences. You can replace these sentences with your own words.

  • Enter Slide 4 Title Here

    This is slide 4 description. Go to Edit HTML of your blogger blog. Find these sentences. You can replace these sentences with your own words.

  • Enter Slide 5 Title Here

    This is slide 5 description. Go to Edit HTML of your blogger blog. Find these sentences. You can replace these sentences with your own words.

Netflix is streaming its first MMA fight on May 16

  March 03, 2026   No comments   Edit

 

Netflix is streaming its very first live MMA fight on May 16. The combatants are one-time phenom Ronda Rousey and one-time actor Gina Carano. Both women have retired from the sport. Rousey left in 2016 and Carano left all the way back in 2009. In any event, they are both back for one night only.

The featherweight bout will take place inside a hexagon cage and will stream globally. It's likely Netflix had to choose two retired fighters because current stars are under contracts with various promotional entities. This fight is co-hosted by Most Valuable Productions, a promotional company started by Jake Paul.

Netflix has already been streaming boxing matches, so MMA seems like a natural next step. The platform has also aired live talk shows, golf events and awards ceremonies.

If you're unfamiliar with the aforementioned fighters, Rousey is a UFC champion and Olympic medalist who has a fantastic 12-2 record in MMA. Carano is a pioneer in the sport, starting her career all the way back in 2006.

She also played Cara Dune in The Mandalorian before getting into hot water after social media posts that mocked mask wearing during the pandemic, alleged voter fraud during the 2020 election and denigrated transgender people. However, it really came to a head when she doubled down on her comments, likening the social media blowback conservatives receive to what Jewish people experienced during the holocaust. That's when she was fired from the hit Star Wars show.

AI developed a whole new sport

  March 03, 2026   No comments   Edit

 

AKQA
Many existing sports have their roots in hundreds (if not thousands) of yearsof human tradition

Many existing sports have their roots in hundreds (if not thousands) of years of human tradition. But what if you asked computers to create a sport? You now know how that can turn out. The design agency AKQA has introduced Speedgate, reportedly the first sport envisioned by an AI. The event has six-player teams competing on a field with three open-ended gates. Once you've kicked the ball through a center gate (which you can't step through), your team can score on one of the end gates -- complete with an extra point if you ricochet the ball through the gate. You can't stay still, either, as the ball has to move every three seconds.

AKQA created the game by feeding data on 400 existing sports to a neural network, which then created basic sports concepts and rules. A large chunk of those were completely unrealistic (exploding Frisbees, anyone?), so the team gradually whittled down the eligible characteristics until there were three remaining sports. Playtesting led to Speedgate winning the prize.

The agency even used AI to develop the game's logo and slightly awkward motto ("face the ball to be the ball to be above the ball").

While the sport was created as an exercise for Design Week, it might just become a serious sport. AKQA is talking to the Oregon Sports Authority about Speedgate, and there might be an intramural league in the summer. The company is encouraging others to start their own leagues. Speedgate probably isn't going to replace conventional sports in the hearts of fans, but it is an example of how AI can be useful even in (currently) human-centric fields like sports. It's doubtful that anyone would have easily devised the concept on their own, even if the underlying concepts are relatively simple.

Subscribe to: Comments (Atom)