LONDON — What does artificial intelligence (AI) have to do with the World Cup?

Quite a lot, according to the tech investors who were prepared to put billions of dollars into Fifa’s proposed private investment vehicle before fierce opposition forced the governing body to shelve the plan.

The thinking behind the proposal was simple, according to a BBC article published yesterday.As AI transforms entertainment and increasingly replaces human work in areas such as film and music, some experiences may become more valuable precisely because they cannot be replicated by technology — and football is one of them.

Thrive Eternal, an investment arm created this year by US venture capital firm Thrive Capital, sees sport as an asset built around tradition, identity and shared human experiences that AI cannot easily reproduce.

Led by Joshua Kushner, brother of US President Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, Thrive Capital is already a major investor in artificial intelligence, including OpenAI.

Thrive Eternal was created to invest in businesses and institutions with qualities that are difficult to replicate through technology, with sport at the centre of its strategy.

That brought Fifa’s World Cup into its sights.