Is it time to replace refs with AI?

[Lalouie]

does it make sense to have the most subjectively reff'd sport in the world replaced by AI??

hmmm, i dunno. my knee jerk said NO but maybe the opposite tact is the solution
my main reservation would be you cant really replace basketball refs because they have the strongest presence of any other sport

[Mr Puddles]

I can't wait for the "AI ref is biased against my team" complaints

[floppymoose]

AI needs more practice first.

Watch on YouTube

[LakersSoul]

does it make sense to have the most subjectively reff'd sport in the world replaced by AI??

hmmm, i dunno. my knee jerk said NO but maybe the opposite tact is the solution
my main reservation would be you cant really replace basketball refs because they have the strongest presence of any other sport

Right now, refs have too much power and they are making way too many mistakes and missing too many calls.

Somethings got to be done to remove bad refs and reward good ones while maximizing AI to enhance the speed and quality of the game.

[Lalouie]

does it make sense to have the most subjectively reff'd sport in the world replaced by AI??

hmmm, i dunno. my knee jerk said NO but maybe the opposite tact is the solution
my main reservation would be you cant really replace basketball refs because they have the strongest presence of any other sport

Right now, refs have too much power and they are making way too many mistakes and missing too many calls.

Somethings got to be done to remove bad refs and reward good ones while maximizing AI to enhance the speed and quality of the game.

the first problem is this "transparency" nonsense. now you're telling everyone you made mistakes which gives players a "right" to argue

[Lalouie]

AI needs more practice first.

Watch on YouTube

ive never heard the full thing

[Black Jack]

I don't understand where there isn't a ref up in the stands watching video and overruling bad calls.

[Jasen777]

I can't wait for the "AI ref is biased against my team" complaints

AI is biased by the data it uses.

Anyways the technology isn't there yet. Reffing a NBA game is a long ways from calling balls and strikes or telling if a ball got to a line.

[Iwasawitness]

I don't understand where there isn't a ref up in the stands watching video and overruling bad calls.

The game would take hours just to complete.

[og15]

The game would be unwatchable with AI refs. There are so many fouls that aren't called that would be called by AI.

That could also be programmed, though I see your concern.

Lol, program then to miss a certain percentage of calls deliberately to be more real?

Might as well just have humans then

I use AI in my field, it can show patterns and she me things I might not immediately see. It can't interpret though, do I don't know how well AI can be expected to say, "I see contract, therefore this contract is a foul, this contact is not". That's a lot of understanding needed.

Contact happens, player with contact moves in certain way = foul? How much movement? What kind of moment? What direction? How will AI distinguish a flop from a real foul? Yea, sounds like a disaster.

I don't understand where there isn't a ref up in the stands watching video and overruling bad calls.

Sounds cool in theory as I've thought about it, but in practice, it seems like it would be a drain and slow down the game. In reality, how quickly can the tower ref review and change? Some calls are quick, and the game is moving on, then the tower ref is like, wait, wait, reverse, lol

I think they should use AI for out of bounds and goaltending, and use a stands ref to make reviews quicker.

[JonFromVA]

The game would be unwatchable with AI refs. There are so many fouls that aren't called that would be called by AI.

Teams will adjust and learn as always where and how calls are made.

Yep, the players/coaches just want consistency. They can easily adjust to how the game is called.

Either add AI refs, or eliminate replay because let's face it; all we care about is that what see on our TV and on the jumbo-tron is how the game is called. Camera angles can fake us out and miss things too, but it's immaterial because we can't get mad at what we can't see.

[Wallace_Wallace]

No. There would be way too many ticky tack fouls (especially away from the ball) that would result in way too many players fouling out. The whole game would change to a point where all the offense will do is attack the star player to get him in foul trouble. Coaches would have to counter with substituting offensive/defensive “squads”.

[OxAndFox]

I can't wait for the "AI ref is biased against my team" complaints

So you don't think the NBA would programme this in? It would 100% be programmed in and we would still have Lakers fans telling everyone nothing to see here as they reel off 20 straight titles.

[Black Jack]

I don't understand where there isn't a ref up in the stands watching video and overruling bad calls.

The game would take hours just to complete.

No it could be used sparingly and challenges would be quicker because the on court refs wouldnt have to go put their eyeballs on the screen. Also if theres AI features the review ref could use those to make sure calls are fair. It would absolutely be better in end of game situations.

[basketballto]

They have the training data and could replicate top refs decisions. They have the ability to identify the player by jersey number understand time so Lebron and other allstars can still get phantom calls in the last quarter if their team is down.

One thing it will do is call the game more uniformly and remove some strong biases some refs have against some player.. Tony Brothers looking at you.

[Mr Puddles]

In all seriousness, the problem with officiating is that the stuff that refs turn a blind eye to (Traveling, moving screens, three in the key) are all things that create highlights for the casual fan to enjoy: moving screens open up shooters, camping in the paint creates a lob threat, traveling increases dunks.

The NBA has bit vested interest in clamping down on these.

The only role I see for AI is helping to speed along officials reviews.

[TheNG]

I want it to be an AI that is trained with all the bad calls from real refs so we can get a similar experience

[TheNG]

They’ll never replace the refs because it’ll make it a lot more difficult to rig the games and treat some players differently like luka,jokic,SGA, embiid,etc

If you choose, you can train the AI to give advantage to some superstars.

[Edrees]

i say they try it. It's a win win scenario if you try it for a season. If they do a better job it's HUGE for the NBA. If they do worse, everyone will appreciate the refs after they bring thtem back.

I don't think Iverson could ref all the games himself, and I don't know if he'd even be good at it. Need more info.

Silly goose. This thread is clearly about Andre Iguodala

[-Luke-]

The game would be unwatchable with AI refs. There are so many fouls that aren't called that would be called by AI.

That could also be programmed, though I see your concern.

if (isPlayerAStar()) {
callFoul();
} elseif (player == "Daniel Theis") {
neverCallFoul();
} else {
coinflip();
}