Listen, Adam Silver has heard you. He's listened to your concerns regarding the officiating throughout theseNBA Playoffs, the confusion regarding important late-game decisions, the tendency of some players to draw fouls with unusual shooting techniques and what seems to be constant diving. Adam Silver heard you and he said... NBA fans — hold my beer.
On a Wednesday appearance on the post-modern media hellscapeThe Pat McAfee Show, Silver stated that numerous close decisions will ultimately becreated using AI-driven video technology.
We're heading towards a system where that entire type of call will be automated, where it'll be Laker ball, Knicks ball, whatever it's called. Those calls will be handled by an AI-driven system equipped with cameras around the court, removing all so-called objective calls from the referees. It will be immediate and automatic. Just keep playing.
I'm certain NBA fans will feel relieved to know that the first three fictional examples Silver devised from the top were "Laker ball, Knick ball, whatever it is, Thunder ball." Great job extinguishing the speculative sparks of underlying bias towards specific teams, Adam, well done.
In fairness to Silver, the "entire category of calls" he refers to are those that are out of bounds. (Until we reach AGI, we cannot possibly trust a computer to determine if Shai Egregious-Alexander was)actually fouledon a performance like this.) InunfairnessTo Silver, this is a bad plan and he should definitely be aware of that.
Artificial intelligence is disrupting numerous industries; why not allow it to affect NBA officiating as well?
I'll confess to having some bias here — my views on today's AI technology applications are likely best described bythis Ed Zitron paragraph:
AI is a perfect storm of failed ideas and institutions, and the pinnacle ofThe Age of the Corporate Dolt, a time in which we are governed by individuals completely out of touch with the real working world, making it inevitable that a technology would emerge designed solely to exploit them.
Perhaps some current or near-future AI technology could more precisely determine if a ball is in bounds or out of bounds and which player last touched it. I am not ready to accept that claim, but let's consider it as a hypothetical. Would NBA fans trust this information and be convinced by it? Would it eliminate the need for...perceived The uncertainty that comes with split-second decisions in elite sports? Will it prevent NBA fans from complaining about bias against their teams or the officiating in general?
No. No. And furthermore, no.
Recent research by the Pew Institutesuggests that Americans hold a negative perspective on the influence of AI across all major industries studied, except for healthcare. They lack general trust in AI and tend to only trust its judgments on future out-of-bounds calls up to the point where it aligns with their existing beliefs—if they believed the ball was out of bounds during a LeBron play, they would trust an AI decision that supports that view, but not one that contradicts it.
It is widely recognized that AI systems may contain built-in biases whenIt's incorporated into their modelFor a basketball enthusiast who believes that human referees give the Thunder players some leniency, it's a simple step to think that an automated system might have similar biases.
The problem is that AI creates an illusion of extreme precision that is rarely actually present, and it doesn't address the real issue. The NBA doesn't have a problem with the accuracy of their referees — according to their own data, the officials are accurate between92% and 95% of calls were accurate. NBA supporters aren't objecting to that 5-8 percent. They are expressing concerns from the viewpoint that the actual error rate is significantly higher.
An AI system that goes beyond its limits doesn't address that viewpoint, it simply provides fans with an alternative hypothetical point of failure to criticize. It replaces one issue with another. However, this isn't unexpected considering the league has been struggling for two decades to tackle tanking and improve the All-Star Game — constantly swapping one poor idea for another new one. Perhaps basketball is a sport, and sports are inherently unpredictable, making it impossible to get everything right. While striving for more fairness is admirable, I don't believe that's truly Adam Silver's objective, nor do I think that's what he will achieve.
More updates and commentary on the NBA:
- This Celtic-Rockets deal might alter the Western Conference standings next year.
- Darryn Peterson's explanation about the cramping is already starting to collapse before the NBA Draft
- A trading strategy for each member of the Orlando Magic Core-4
- Acquiring James Harden ruined the Cavs' best opportunity to win a championship.
This piece was first released on asAdam Silver states that AI is set to take over your NBA replay reviews.
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