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Part of a figure skaters job is to make their routine look as effortless and graceful as possible, as if theyre floating on ice and soaring into the air through sheer force of will. In reality, theyre often launching themselves multiple feet into the air with what amounts to sand bags on their feet; generating hundreds of pounds of centripetal force through rotations; and landing on a blade thats just 3/16 of an inch wide. At the 2026 Winter Games in Milan and Cortina, Italy, NBC is using an AI tool developed by a former MIT researcher to help audiences understand just how mind-boggling the feats of todays Olympic athletes are. Jerry Lu [Photo: Bryce Vickmark/MIT] Jerry Lu is a 2024 MIT graduate and the founder of OOFSports, a sports analytics company that uses AI to analyze program footage, document performance data in real time, and allow commentators to give viewers a more concrete understanding of athletes feats. At Milan Cortina, hes partnering with NBC Sports on its figure skating, snowboarding, and skiing programming, collecting data like the height of jumps, athletes speed, and their rotational paths. As figure skaters continue to break new ground in the sportlike landing more and more jumps with quadruple rotations (see American skater Ilia Malinins first-ever quad axel landed at the Olympics), Lus AI-powered tech can help make sense of their routines, moment by moment. [Video: Jerry Lu] A big ask from NBC Lus career in sports analytics began with his own interest in competitive swimming. During his undergraduate studies at the University of Virginia, he worked with the mathematician Ken Ono to develop a wearable device that let the schools swimmers analyze their strokes, which helped them to increase propulsion and reduce drag. Lu later served as a technical consultant for five swimmers who won medals at the Tokyo Olympics in 2020, followed by 16 medalists at the Paris Olympics in 2024. During his time at MIT in its dedicated sports lab, Lu began experimenting with sports analytics technology for other fields, including a program designed to help Australias BMX freestyle team optimize its strategy. Following the Paris Olympics, he says, NBC approached him directly to ask if he could create a data analytics system for figure skating in Milan Cortina. At that point, some of the artistic sports were missing this data-driven storytelling abilityif you watch hockey on TV, it looks slow, but if you watch it in person, it looks fast, Lu says. Similarly, he explains, if one were to watch American figure skater Amber Glenn perform a jump on screen, it might not look mind-blowingbut in person, she would be soaring unbelievably high in the air. NBC needed a way to bridge the gap between those two experiences. Building an AI model for the Olympics For Lu and his teamnone of whom are skatersthe first step toward building this tool was jumping on a call with former Olympic skaters and longtime NBC analysts Tara Lipinski and Johnny Weir. Unlike sports like swimming or track and field, the judging parameters for figure skating can involve quite a bit of grey area, meaning that Lus team needed a full run-down of what the judges would be looking for. They essentially taught us the sport, Lu says. They taught us exactly what they were looking for, what the judges are looking for, what, from their understanding, is a virtue, and whats a vice. We needed to come up with ways to quantify those and essentially give them the metrics with which they can compare across athletes. Making a tool for analyzing figure skating required a completely different system from swimming, Lu says. Whereas propulsion and drag were the two main variables in that sport, figure skating is all about the speed and rotation needed to complete complicated jumps. To calculate those metrics without wearables, his team trained an AI model to analyze program footage and identify a variety of rotational points on the athletes body, from their head to shoulders, elbows, hips, and ankles. Using those data points, the team then taught the model to categorize different jumps based on body positioninglike the toe loop, luxe, and axeland, further, to count the athletes total rotations in order to classify the jumps as a double, triple, or quad. By understanding exactly where the skater is at any given point, the AI model can calculate statistics like their speed when entering a jump, total jump height, jump exit speed, and the ground they cover across the rink; all crucial elements of their performance. These kinds of numbers can help commentators like Lipinsky and Weir paint a much more detailed picture for this years Olympic viewers. Will AI ever replace Olympic figure skating judges? This researcher says no Outside of his collaboration with NBC, Lu has turned his figure skating model into an app called OOFSkate, which lets skaters of any level film their routines and instantly understand their own stats. The app became an official partner of U.S. Figure Skating in December 2025. Lus next step is creating a version of this technology that not only tracks skaters routines, but also scores them. Right now, he already has a model in the works, which he plans on debuting some time during the skating off-season. Ultimately, he says, the model will be able to assist in evaluating technical performance on a select number of skills, but it will never replace human judgements on athletes artistic performance. Figure skating is this very unique blend of artistic and technical abilities, u says. The Olympics is all about athletes going higher, faster, strongerotherwise you dont deserve to be here. Figure skating has a part of that, which is that the bigger jumps get awarded bigger points, which is correctif you did a quad and I did a triple, you should get more points. But at the same time, this artistic element is also part of the thesis of figure skating.
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E-Commerce
For investors, DraftKings has been anything but a sure bet. The company reported earnings on Thursday, which showed revenue of nearly $2 billionan increase of 43% year-over-yearand earnings per share of $0.25. We closed 2025 on a high note. Fourth quarter revenue increased 43% year-over-year and we achieved records for revenue and Adjusted EBITDA. Our core business is strong as we enter 2026, said Jason Robins, DraftKings Chief Executive Officer and Co-founder, in a statement included with the earnings release. However, despite the strong numbers, DraftKings stock was down more than 15% during pre-trading on Friday morning, and is now down almost 30% since the beginning of the year. Further, over the past calendar year, its down more than 45%. The catalyst? Future uncertainty. Specifically, the company is forecasting fiscal year 2026 revenue guidance range of $6.5 billion to $6.9 billion and a fiscal year 2026 Adjusted EBITDA guidance range of $700 million to $900 million, which is below estimates and softer than anticipated. The broader issue is that the sports gambling and prediction markets are evolving quickly, and theres the distinct possibility that regulation could rein things in, or that individual states could start to tax the companies or users themselves to different degrees. Further, prediction market companies like Kalshi and Polymarket are now in the fray, and both of those companies may offer users a different way to scratch their itch by offering betting products that are exempt from state taxes due to the way theyre structured. DraftKings, too, has a predictions app (DraftKings Predictions) available to users in 38 states, while its sports betting app is available in 28 states. DraftKings isnt alone in taking it on the chin from the markets. Flutter Entertainment, the largest sports betting stock by market cap, and parent company of FanDuel and others, was likewise down more than 4% before the market opened on Friday, and down more than 35% year-to-date. MGM, which also runs a betting app, was down by similar amount, as was Caesars.
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E-Commerce
Maybe you first bonded over shared workplace frustrations. You gradually started finding each other every lunch break and synchronizing trips to the coffee machine. Eventually they become a confidant for venting about your real life outside of work. They become your work spouse. And if you find yourself strolling the greeting card aisle sometime today, you may even feel compelled to get this person in your life a trinket for celebrating the most romantic day of the year. Turns out, there are options available. For my work wife on Valentines day, one option reads from Card Factory. Ive finally found someone just as inappropriate as me! A card to show appreciation for your work spouse on Valentines Day might seem like a sweet gesture. But if you have an actual spouse or partner waiting at home. . .they might think differently. Im sorry, one TikTok creator posted after spotting the card in the wild, but the argument that would ensue if my partner came home from work with one of these cards from his colleague on Valentines day. “Im already mad thinking about it,” one user commented. The video quickly racked up almost 700,000 views and hundreds of comments. Another quipped: I didn’t know card factory even sold divorce papers. A third wrote: “the person who designed them cards just LIVES to stir up drama, i just know it.” While honoring a colleague on Valentines Day might be taking things a little far if youre otherwise spoken for, the idea of a work wife or work husband has been a feature of American offices for decades. Its also been much-parodied online, with the overly flirtatious colleague stereotype a trigger for many. Im not even married but Im already planning an argument with my husband, one comment under a viral skit read. I punched my phone by reflex, another added. The boundaries of the work spouse relationship can get blurry. Its by nature more intimate from other workplace relationships, but it must remain strictly platonic. Some scholars have argued that the connection actually sits somewhere between friendship and romance. Having lunch with my work wife, one TikTok creator posted. Hoping my wife wife doesnt find out. Of course, having close friendships at work is no bad thing. In fact, its good for both productivity and performance. According to a new study from KPMG, employees said that having workplace friendships increases their motivation to go above and beyond their job description. More than half (57%) would even take a salary 10% below market rate if it meant being able to have close friends at work. But labeling someone other than your spouse your wife or husband, however innocently, can easily spiral into conflict, especially given the close proximity that working together necessitates. A 2023 Newsweek poll found that 45% of adults in the U.S. dont think its appropriate to have a work spouse. Only 21% deemed it okay. Having a work spouse is one thing. But getting them a Valentines Day card if you have an actual spouse at home? That might be a one-way ticket to the doghouse.
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E-Commerce
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