Cycling app Strava employs AI for training and anti-cheating features

Cycling app Strava is using AI to bring smart training and anti-cheating tools to its audience of more than 125 million users.

In a showcase at Camp Strava on May 16, Strava unveiled some of its upcoming app developments, including some using AI and machine learning to take the app to its next stage.

“Strava is gaining momentum to realize our vision of a world connected through movement,” said CEO Michael Martin. “We are focused on two fundamental shifts to accelerate how we deliver value to 125 million people globally: building for women and leveraging artificial intelligence, which will unlock new community-and-partner-powered experiences across the platform.”

The first of the AI-led features is Leaderboard Integrity, using machine learning to automatically flag “irregular, improbable, or impossible activities”. Essentially, this will allow the Strava team to more easily sniff out people cheating their way up the in-app leaderboards.

Another new feature (although not AI-powered) is the long-awaited arrival of dark mode. The developers hope that the new mode will reduce eye strain and improve accessibility for users, due to come later this summer in a gradual rollout.

Last but not least, Strava also outlined its plans to use “the latest technological enhancements in AI and machine learning to transform the athlete experience”.

How it plans to do this is through Athlete Intelligence, a beta AI-powered feature that turns each subscriber’s training data into an easily digestible summary. This includes context on accomplishments and fitness goals so far and brings multiple sports together in one place.

Insights offered by Athlete Intelligence, judging from early screenshots of it in action, include comparing week-on-week progress, updates on how close you’re getting to weekly and monthly fitness goals, and insights on what the paces you’re setting will do for your fitness. These insights appear to come via in-app messages in the ‘You’ tab.

It’s not clear exactly when these features will launch but presumably sometime in the coming months.

Featured image: Strava

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