The National Basketball Association has decided to go completely digital with artificial intelligence (AI) for efficient game management.
Adam Silver, commissioner of the NBA—the top professional basketball league in North America—said the league will use AI to automate a range of calls such as out-of-bounds decisions to speed up games and reduce disputes over possession.
Silver compared the system to the Hawk-Eye technique used in tennis, where electronic line-calling instantly determines whether the ball has fallen in or out.
“We’re going to move toward a system where the entire category of calls will be automated,” Silver said on ESPN’s Pat McAfee show on Wednesday.
“It’s going to be laker balls, knocked balls, whatever. Those calls will be made by AI, automated systems with cameras all around the court.”
The technology will make such decisions instantly and allow referees to focus on calls for contact and fouls.
“It would take all those so-called objective calls out of the hands of the referees,” he said. “You won’t have to deal with challenges on those calls.”
The NBA has increasingly relied on rapid replay reviews and centralized decision making to improve officiating accuracy, although the reviews can slow down the pace of games.
Silver said referees will remain required to interpret physical contact where a decision is required to determine whether a player has been impeded.
“Contact happens in almost every game, but that doesn’t mean fouls happen in every game,” Silver said. “It’s something that just can’t be done on camera.”
Notably, Silver did not provide any exact timeline for the introduction of the system, but said it would be “fairly soon”.
