X Games CEO Jeremy Bloom made a significant announcement this week that seemed to slip under the radar. The company known for hosting the best action sports athletes in the world, including skiers and snowboarders in the beloved Winter X Games, is taking a big swing with its new AI software that’s been created to, “bring unprecedented fairness, transparency, and immersion to the global sports ecosystem,” according to a press release. OWL AI, now its own company following Bloom’s announcement, was first used in the 2025 Winter X Games, and is allegedly not meant to replace human judges, at least not yet. Instead, X Games uses buzzwords like ‘enhance’, ‘education’, and ‘fan engagement’ to describe how the software will supposedly improve the at-home viewing experience. OWL AI’s first attempt at improving the fan experience wasn’t ideal. The software correctly predicted the eventual first, second, and third-place finishers in the event, but the eerily robotic, TikTok-esque voice constantly interrupted the announcers with stats and observations that weren’t particularly valuable. Bloom hasn’t minced words about his revolutionary vision for the future of X Games, but has he lost the plot with this investment in artificial intelligence (AI)? X Games League, a pseudo-reality TV show , and an investments in storytelling content about X Games athletes all feel like steps in the right direction, but the company’s staunch commitment to AI has me deeply troubled. Want to keep up with the best stories and photos in skiing? Subscribe to the new Powder To The People newsletter for weekly updates. Stories related to AI dominate a significant portion of our lives in 2025, and according to experts, its prevalence will continue to grow exponentially in the coming years. AI can certainly help humans, but the real-world consequences of giving such impressive technology to the masses are only beginning to be felt. Students cheat on tests and write entire research papers using AI. Artists are losing work because of AI-generated slop. What I’ve observed, at least in the first few years of the AI revolution, is that value of each individual’s talents decreases with advancements in AI. Can’t or don’t want to find a person to do it? Ask AI. The world’s leaders seem fine with letting AI develop uncontrolled, despite these glaring consequences. Technology was an instrumental tool in progressive movements, and steadily improved the quality of life throughout the 20th century, why stop now? The difference, at least when it comes to the intimately human sports of skiing and snowboarding, is that the unlimited potential of AI actually threatens these sports, rather than supports them. Subjective-based judging has always been a weak point for freeride/freestyle skiing and snowboarding competitions. It doesn’t matter if it’s the X Games, Olympics, Freeride World Tour, Natural Selection Tour, or just a small comp at your local hill—if humans are judging, there are guaranteed to be complaints. Spectators will feel strongly that their favorite rider was snubbed. A fellow competitor will criticize how their run was judged. A random guy online will comment, “I could have judged that better with my eyes closed.” The human condition, which I believe is dominated by imperfection, is perhaps best observed in a human-judged ski or snowboarding competition. Detractors, including X Games CEO Jeremy Bloom, claim that these inherent imperfections are a reason to add AI to ski judging. “I founded this company with one goal: to remove human error and bias from judged and refereed sports—Athletes and fans deserve the correct call, 100% of the time,” writes Bloom on LinkedIn regarding the launch of OWL AI. Despite this clearly stated intention to systemically change how sports are judged and refereed (by humans with human error), OWL AI isn’t currently marketed as a complete replacement of in-person judging, rather it’s a sexy tech enhancement. Bloom mentions how the software can evaluate talent, broadcast in a variety of languages, and perform other sports-media-related functions, but with what we already know about AI software and programs, plus Bloom’s goal of eradicating human error in sports, what’s preventing the system from eventually reaching that point? Baseball is facing a similar issue. Thanks to modern technology, TV spectators know immediately if the umpire made the right call. The umpire can’t see the magic box drawn around the hitter’s strike zone that we can see on TV, but they’re consistently judged against it. So much so, in fact, that a movement is gaining steam to replace in-person umpires entirely. These baseball fans argue that they’d rather watch AI-software make nearly 100% accurate calls on Balls, Strikes, Hits, Outs, Home Runs, and corked bats. The human element of making a simple mistake is no longer acceptable in their book. How do you feel when you go skiing? Happy? Free? Liberated? Human? How does your mood change when you’re on the mountain? Do you notice you’re more friendly towards strangers? Are you less irritated by life’s inconveniences? Maybe you catch yourself taking a deep breath that fills your body with a calming, yet exhilarating high. You might experience a wave of relief as your daily screen time is replaced with Mother Nature, laughs with friends, and happy memories surrounded by snow. These sentiments are shared by many who yearn for every possible moment on the mountain. It’s what makes skiing, well… skiing ! We ski to get away from normal life. We ski to escape. Watching the X Games on TV is a different experience than getting out on skis yourself, but imagining life vicariously through top athletes adds to our passion. It’s a slow trickle of dopamine compared to actually skiing, but we savor it. We get to witness things that we thought couldn’t be done. We share in the disappointment when our favorite athlete crashes. Ultimately, we watch to feel closer to the athletes that we idolize. We yearn to learn their ways, or to buy them a beer and have a friendly conversation about skiing. Part of the beauty of this one-sided relationship with professional athletes is the randomness in it all. No matter how confident we feel in how a competition will play out beforehand, we can never be certain of the results until they’re decided. Similar to the skiers in the Pipe, we put faith in the real human judges that fill the booth to perform. We don’t know how it will play out until the competition is happening, and there’s nothing we can do to influence that outcome. The randomness in it all is what it makes it real. It’s what makes a ski competition human . Adding an AI judge as a model for comparison’s sake, or even just as a baseline, will change this nature entirely. Similar to baseball, some fans will begin to wonder why skiing and snowboarding don’t switch to AI judges entirely. The writing is on the wall. Skiing and snowboarding are sports created by humans, enjoyed by humans, and judged by humans. That holds true for skiers who aren’t even competing. If you slide on snow, other humans will have unique thoughts, opinions, criticisms, and perspectives on how you do so. Passing judgement, or sharing an opinion, is an inherently human trait that we will most likely never shake as a species. Proponents of AI in ski competitions aim to diminish this human nature. Rather than trusting humans to develop unique opinions that keep them engaged throughout the broadcast, X Games is banking on fancy technology and stats to wow viewers who may have not been interested otherwise. The original thoughts that spark the spirited debates we love will slowly fade away. It’s not exactly fun to argue with a perfect AI bot’s decision about whether a skier’s zero-spin should score more than a triple-cork 2160. This tech-first, bet-friendly model could lead to more viewers, but it will ruin the integrity of the sports themselves. For context, modern ski comp judges have standards to base their marks on, but difference in opinion will always shine through, and is even encouraged in many judges’ booths. That’s beautiful, in my eyes. Skiing shouldn’t be objectively judged by a robot that counts spins, launch angles, and technical prowess. The sport is too expressive, intimate, and immersive to default to a computer program’s approval. If you couldn’t tell by this 1,400+ word rant, I’m a Luddite when it comes to AI. I fear that the excitement of limitless technological advancements and applications is blinding us from the real-world consequences. Thousands, if not millions, of Americans will lose their jobs to AI in the next 10 years as basic tasks are automated and programmed. The fear of POWDER being replaced by an AI-generated ski influencer has crossed my mind more than a number of times. Skiing and snowboarding don’t need AI to grow. In fact, the best way for winter sports to gain passionate followers is to prove how they’re different from the rest of the outside world. These sports are perhaps the most unique pastimes ever created by humans. Why does it feel like X Games wants to make them feel like the rest? I will certainly watch the Winter X Games next season, but I will roll my eyes every time OWL AI pops on to tell me something I don’t care about. If X Games moves to replace human judging entirely, I will turn my focus to other competitions that support my values as a skier. Humans ski. AI sucks.