Why Do Humans Still Need Exercise When Machines Keep Getting Stronger?

Source: Science and Technology Vista (科技大觀園)

By: Ming-Yi Tsou(鄒明珆), Special Correspondent for Science and Technology Vista

As food delivery platforms replace the need to walk to restaurants, AI assistants handle tedious paperwork, and companion robots increasingly enter households to help with daily tasks, one question naturally arises: if machines can do more and more for us, why do humans still need to sweat through exercise?

For Cheng-Wen Wu (吳誠文)—former Little League baseball player and current Minister without Portfolio as well as Chairperson of Taiwan’s National Science and Technology Council—the answer goes far beyond slogans like “exercise prevents obesity” or “reduces chronic disease.” He defines exercise as humanity’s gateway to understanding the body, and as the final wilderness within technological civilization that cannot be fully automated or replaced.

Ironically, this wilderness is now filled with digital footprints. As we step onto running tracks or into gyms, smart devices meticulously record every heartbeat, stride, and pace. At first glance, this may seem contradictory: if exercise is about preserving our most primal bodily awareness, why are we bringing AI and big data into sports and daily life?

“This is not a contradiction,” Wu emphasizes. To understand how technology empowers sports, we must first move beyond the surface of data and return to a more fundamental question: what does exercise truly mean for human beings?

Exercise as Resonance Between Brain and Body

For Wu, the core purpose of integrating technology into sports is not to make people lazier, but to help us “see” connections that were previously invisible. He offers a poetic analogy:

   “Exercise is actually very similar to music.”

Whether swinging a bat, pitching a baseball, or playing the saxophone—an instrument he personally enjoys—each activity involves deep coordination between the brain, cerebellum, and bodily sensations.

“When playing an instrument, the human body resonates with the instrument. Even with the same saxophone, different people produce different sounds,” Wu explains.

The same applies to sports. Exercise is about the delicate coordination of breathing rhythms, muscle activation, and the body’s immediate feedback

In the past, this subtle “body awareness” could only be developed through personal experience or coaching intuition. Today, however, technology acts like both an amplifier and a recorder in an orchestra. AI can detect tiny imbalances and movement deviations invisible to the human eye, while sensors quantify muscular coordination.

As a result, while pursuing efficiency, we can also use data to gain a deeper understanding of our own bodies.

Cheng-Wen Wu, Chairperson of Taiwan’s National Science and Technology Council, noted that the essence of exercise lies in the coordination and resonance between the brain and body, while AI and data analytics are gradually making these once-imperceptible bodily rhythms visible and measurable. (Photo by Wen-Ting Wang(王文廷) )

From Sports Science to Sports Technology

Yet for a long time, this ability to “see” was a luxury.

Wu notes that traditional sports science has existed for decades, but was primarily designed for elite athletes. Nutrition, biochemistry, sports psychology, and medical protection systems all focused on helping top competitors shave off a second or win a medal.

Such systems were expensive and difficult to popularize.

With the rise of AI, however, sports science is beginning to break free from its professional boundaries.

Modern sports technology emphasizes the transformation of big data into actionable intelligence. Through AI and sensing technologies, raw data can now help coaches create highly precise training plans while also enabling ordinary people to better understand their own physical performance.

Exercise is gradually evolving from elite competition into a cultural and lifestyle activity accessible to everyone.

Lowering the Barrier: Smartphones as AI Coaches

How exactly does technology make sports more accessible?

Wu believes the key lies in the maturity of non-contact sensing and computer vision technologies.

In the past, detailed movement analysis and training feedback required expensive equipment and professional coaching. Even though sports habits are often cultivated through families and schools, limited social resources made it impossible to place elite coaches and equipment everywhere.

“This is where AI delivers its greatest value: lowering barriers,” Wu explains.

Today, athletes no longer need to wear full-body sensors that may feel uncomfortable or interfere with movement. By simply recording video on a smartphone, AI can analyze movement trajectories in real time and provide corrective feedback.

This means the “ability to understand the body,” once hidden inside elite systems, is now becoming available to parents, grassroots coaches, and ordinary users.

This democratization of sports technology is also strongly supported by Chung-Chun Kuan (關仲鈞), guest editor of this issue and co-founder/CEO of Keep Tossing Lab.

Kuan sees this wave of innovation as the true beginning of sports technology popularization.

As sensing technologies and AI agents with sports science capabilities become more widespread, what changes is not merely the toolset itself, but the opportunity for users to understand their bodies and performance through richer dimensions of data.

Previously, integrated analysis combining video, statistics, movement, and training context required specialized professional teams. Today, such capabilities are increasingly available to broader audiences.

“This not only helps coaches, parents, and athletes establish a common language,” Kuan says, “but more importantly, it opens enormous industrial opportunities.”

As participation barriers fall and user populations grow, industries outside traditional sports—including service industries and conventional businesses—can begin identifying needs across diverse application scenarios such as training optimization, data services, content applications, hardware integration, and enhanced venue experiences.

Sports technology is therefore evolving from a specialized tool into a scalable industrial ecosystem capable of continuous innovation and value creation.

This marks the critical step in transforming sports technology from a “tool” into a “culture.”

Smartphones integrated with AI-powered motion analysis enable real-time correction of athletic movements, lowering training barriers and making body-awareness capabilities more accessible to the public. (Photo by You-Ting Dong (董宥廷))

From Sovereign AI to Smart Stadiums: Taiwan’s New Technological Frontier

The tremendous potential unleashed by sports technology is also becoming a new stage for Taiwan to showcase its strengths as a technology powerhouse.

Wu acknowledges that although Taiwan possesses world-class semiconductor and hardware manufacturing capabilities, it has historically focused more on contract manufacturing than end-user applications.

With the promotion of “Sovereign AI” policies and the establishment of Taiwan’s Ministry of Sports, the country is now actively developing locally distinctive application markets.

“We are advancing in two directions,” Wu explains. “One is the professionalization of competitive sports, and the other is the industrialization of recreational sports.”

At the competitive level, Taiwan plans to use baseball—its “national sport”—as the leading driver for upgrading stadium infrastructure.

Future smart stadiums will not only assist tactical decision-making but also analyze audience reactions through AI to improve fan engagement. Taiwan is even capable of developing local solutions for advanced technologies such as automated strike-zone systems.

At the recreational level, technology is reshaping home fitness and health management.

Wu envisions households equipped with personalized AI models or companion robots capable of reminding elderly family members to exercise and offering individualized dietary and training recommendations.

Importantly, this approach does not necessarily require expensive equipment.

Wu himself regularly uses his smartphone to track steps, walking distance, and elevation gain, reminding himself to avoid prolonged sitting and to compensate for insufficient weekday exercise during weekends.

This practical form of self-monitoring demonstrates technology at its best: serving as the first line of defense for personal health by intervening before risks emerge.

Beyond improving public health, Wu believes this also represents a new export opportunity for Taiwan’s technology sector.

He hopes that once this integrated “Taiwan Model”—combining AI, sensors, and service platforms—matures domestically, it can eventually be exported globally, transforming Taiwan from a technology supplier into a leader in sports technology applications.

Building a Sports Culture Through Policy, Industry, and Everyday Life

Despite the powerful support provided by technology, Wu stresses that sports technology alone cannot transform society.

For meaningful change to occur, policy, industry, and daily life must advance simultaneously so that exercise can truly become embedded within culture.

If a society’s sports culture relies solely on government campaigns or a handful of celebrity athletes, exercise will never fully integrate into ordinary life.

Only when sports connect deeply with health management, education, social interaction, and even career development—supported by a complete service and industrial ecosystem—will people begin to see exercise as a natural and necessary part of everyday living.

The Stronger Machines Become, the More Humans Need Exercise

This brings us back to the original question: why do humans still need exercise as machines become increasingly powerful?

Wu believes the answer lies in something machines can never fully possess: human initiative.

In an automated and intelligent future, machines may take over repetitive labor and even remind us when we are tired, but the authentic feeling of being alive cannot be outsourced.

Technology may provide us with increasingly precise maps, but people must still walk the road themselves and sweat through the experience before cold data can be transformed into meaningful life.

The development of sports technology is therefore not about making humans more machine-like. Instead, it is about helping people reconnect with their bodies more safely and intelligently in an era dominated by automation and virtual information.

When we learn to listen to our bodies through data, exercise ceases to be merely a competition or a health KPI. It becomes part of the progress of civilization itself.

The stronger machines become, the more humans need exercise—because exercise remains one of the purest and most moving ways to prove our genuine existence in a world increasingly shaped by algorithms.

Sources

Interview with Cheng-Wen Wu

Interview with Chung-Chun Kuan