If you’re wondering how artificial intelligence may begin to interact with our world on a more personal level, look no further than the landscape of sports. As the technology of machine learning becomes more mature and the need for human officiating becomes less necessary, sports leagues have found creative ways to integrate the concept of “computer referees” in ways we may not have initially expected.
Tennis, for example, has been a leading figure in adopting AI officiating. The Hawk-Eye System, introduced in the early 2000s, first changed tennis officiating by allowing players to challenge calls made by line judges. Hawk-Eye, which used multiple cameras and real-time 3D analysis to determine whether a ball was in or out, has today developed into a system called Electronic Line Calling Live, known as ELC. The new technology has become so reliable that the ATP plans to phase out line judges in professional tournaments by the summer of this year.
The Australian Open has taken this system a step further by testing AI to detect foot-faults. Utilizing skeletal tracking technology, the system monitors player movements to identify infractions, improving match accuracy and reducing human error. However, a glitch in the technology did make for a funny moment during this past year’s Australian Open when the computer speaker repeated “foot-fault” before German player Dominik Koepfer could even begin his serve.
Baseball, a sport historically rooted in tradition, has also been experimenting with AI and officiating. The Automated Ball-Strike (ABS) system, colloquially known as “robot umpires,” uses machine learning and computer vision to analyze pitch trajectory and determine if a pitch is a strike or a ball.
During this year’s major league spring training, human umpires would make initial ball-strike calls, but players could challenge those calls if they disagreed with them. Successful challenges would overturn the umpire’s call and teams would retain their challenge, having only two of them per game. Although minor league baseball has utilized the system consistently since last season, the MLB will wait until at least next season to fully implement the game-changing technology.
In the United States, the MLB has been testing ABS in minor league games since 2019, but while the technology has offered increased accuracy, it has faced challenges with processing delays. There will have to be more work done until we see a more realized version of the robot umpires in professional baseball.
Within soccer, the introduction of Semi-Automated Offside Technology (SAOT), which first debuted in the 2022 FIFA World Cup, has employed Video Assistant Referees (VAR) to assist in making offside calls in soccer. The system automates key aspects of the offside decision-making process, such as determining the “kick-point” and player positioning, to produce virtual graphics, ensuring a more fair and accurate game.
However, the technology is not without controversy. In the opening match of the 2022 World Cup, a goal by Ecuador’s Enner Valencia was disallowed due to a marginal offside detected by SAOT, sparking debates about the system’s centimeter-level precision and the impact of the flow of the game.
Even the NBA has begun integrating AI-powered cameras to assist referees in detecting out-of-bound plays and tracking player movements. And in the world of football, the NFL has started to test supplements to assist in officiating decisions, particularly with first downs.
As some may remember from this year’s AFC Championship game between the Buffalo Bills and the Kansas City Chiefs, a controversial denial of a first down to the Bills gave the Chiefs just enough leeway to clinch a win and a ticket to the Super Bowl. Thus, the NFL Commissioner’s Office has begun looking to Hawk-Eye technology from Sony to measure the line to gain a first down. However, chain crews don’t seem to be going anywhere, as the goal of the technology appears to be to serve as a complement and not a substitute for on-field officiating.
In other applications of professional sports leagues looking to make further inroads into the world of artificial intelligence, player analytics and advanced tracking technologies are sure to appear on a consistent basis soon. Of course, the tension between players and calls made by referees can often make for some good television, but the reality is that sports leagues are interested in the business of fairness and clean games, not screaming matches and other moments of embarrassment.
In the meantime, the best we can do as sports fans is to let professionals and league offices slowly but surely wade through the chaos that is artificial intelligence, and eventually, we won’t have to worry about “bad calls” any longer. Until then, though, let’s appreciate the work human referees put in and rejoice in the beauty that we know as sports.
