As American Tennis player Sloane Stephens continues her career, the storm of angry social media comments only gets worse.

According to an NPR article, Stephens says, “My entire career, it’s never stopped. If anything, it’s only gotten worse.”

Since Tennis is a sport that only requires 1 person on each side, the player gets all the blame if they lose. That is the case with Sloane Stephens and many other players.

Fortunately, tournament hosts are giving players a tool to stop abusive comments online by using AI.

This AI, called Bodyguard.ai, is meant to detect who a comment is targeting and figures out the meaning behind it so that the AI can block that comment.

According to NPR, Matthieu Boutard, Bodyguard.ai’s co-founder, says, “If there’s a ballgame that needs this protection, it’s tennis.”

However, free speech advocates are concerned about AI blocking a comment before the message goes to the target. According to NPR, Kate Klonick, a St. John’s University professor in New York, explains, “That could lead to something akin to “prior restraint,” where the government prevents someone from exercising their right to free speech.” Klonick also says, “You can imagine how something like Bodyguard.ai could block a lot of politicians or public figures or people who maybe it’s important that they see some of the criticism leveled against them, from ever seeing that type of public reaction

According to the NPR article, Matthieu Boutard counters by saying, “‘We don’t remove criticism, what we remove is toxicity,’ he said. ‘The line is actually pretty clear. If you start throwing insults, being racist, attacking a player, using body-shaming, that’s not a criticism, and that’s actually toxic to the player.’

Many tennis players have been using Bodyguard.ai and applaud it for being so useful, such as Iga Swiatek. According to NPR, “‘It’s just sad to kind of see that the thing that was supposed to kind of make us happy and make us socialized is giving us more negative feelings and negative thoughts,’ she said. ‘So, I think these kind of apps maybe will help us to, I don’t know, use social media and not worry about those things.’”