Sports analytics might be unmatched when it comes to AI

It's possible that there are more people interested in artificial intelligence than in sports analytics. 

The individuals who eliminated the sacrifice bunt and made NBA games into competitions for 3-point shooting are unsure about what will happen when artificial intelligence fully invades sports, both off the court and in the front office. 

"I have a lot of experience in computer science. At the MIT Sloan Sports Analytics Conference on Friday, Daryl Morey, the president of the Philadelphia 76ers, stated, "This is the first thing we don't understand." 

That's astounding, Morey remarked. "We've actually created something with 0s and 1s where we made the creation at every step, but we don't know what the outcome is." 

The MIT conference annually brings together thousands of number-crunching sports nerds, who turn their data models loose on hot topics such as diversity, gambling or reversing the slowing pace of baseball games. But this year’s gathering had a decidedly AI focus, with panels and working papers on the potential for generative artificial intelligence to transform sports. 

One talk looked at baseball strategy, another on how to provide Olympic content for the 200-plus countries competing in four dozen different sports, and a research paper used AI to provide player tracking data from a soccer broadcast. 

Morey, one of the conference’s founders, was on a panel called “Winning with AI: The future of AI in sports.” The discussion touched on potential for improvements in scheduling, player safety, advertising, ticket sales and broadcasts that convert the on-field action into a Disney cartoon. 

Kevin Lopes, an ESPN vice president for development and innovation, compared AI to the iPhone, which transformed everyday life by giving everyone with some coding skills the chance to come up with their own applications. 

“I think about that when I think about generative AI,” Lopes said. “I don’t think anyone quite knows what that is yet. That’s fascinating to me, and what’s going to be the next thing. 

“We exist in this moment in history, in my humble opinion, that every day we’re seeing new incremental innovations in AI,” he said. “What’s it going to be for the freshman at MIT in two years.” 

AI has already arrived

A batter who is now a commentator, Carlos Peña, said artificial intelligence (AI) can help him get rid of his blind spots. (But unless it is stripped of its "mathiness" and reduced to basic instruction like "look for the fastball up and in," he warned, players would refuse.) 

Scouts and others have complained that analytics cannot replace intuition. Pena responded, "That's not what we're trying to do here." We are attempting to improve intuition. 

According to Christopher Jackson, the head of the Olympics' digital data and analytics, artificial intelligence (AI) can be used to help produce website material that appeals to viewers of niche sports from foreign nations that don't often receive much media attention. One problem: Olympic planning is measured in decades, while major changes in AI come around every six months or so. 

Amazon Web Services global head Julie Souza said the NFL is saving $2 million a year by running AI on its schedule, which has 1 quadrillion  that’s a one followed by 15 zeros  potential options that must account for holidays, shared stadiums and travel. AI is already dissecting which plays  and even which bodily poses  are most likely to cause injuries in a football game, she said. 

“Rules are changing to make the game safer, to make the players more protected,” Souza said, adding that the information can trickle up from football to the military and others. 

“It’s not just the NFL benefitting from this,” she said. “We’re not going back. There’s no way to go back from this. We’re just learning more and making the game safer. Which is great not just for the league, but for us on fans to have our players on the field more.” 

Morey said the 76ers use AI for productivity speeding up routine tasks but it isn't quite sharp enough yet to outdo the humans they have trying to improve their predictive modeling. “We haven’t found a ton there, but that will change,” he said. 

They will keep trying

“There’s a lot of scary things with this, but it sort of is. This is happening,” Morey said. “There isn’t going to be a way to do all the safety stuff. There isn’tactually going to be any way to control it. You really just lean into it, honestly, to help your business, to help what you’re doing. 

“And there could be a very scary thing you hit. But what’s the alternative? Not embracing it?” he said. “That makes no sense.”