NBA plans to make major shift to AI in one specific area

The NBA plans to take a page out of MLB’s playbook in the near future.

NBA commissioner Adam Silver appeared on “The Pat McAfee Show” on Wednesday and revealed that the league plans to start utilizing artificial intelligence to rule on out-of-bounds calls.

“In terms of replay,” Silver told McAfee. “We’re going to get to the point fairly quickly where, for example, out of bounds, we’re going to move to a system like [the Hawk-Eye system in professional tennis] where that whole category of calls will be automatic.

“It’s gonna be Laker ball, Knick ball, Thunder ball — those calls will be done by an AI-automated system with cameras lined around the court. It’ll take all of those so-called objective calls out of the hands of the referees. It’ll be instantaneous, it’ll be automatic, just play on.”

Silver added that he believes moving to such a system would allow referees to “give their full attention” toward the “subjective” calls that cameras and AI cannot measure, particularly in determining whether contact is a foul or not.

Silver did not commit to when the NBA would start using an AI-automatic system aside from stating that it would happen “fairly quickly.”

Those hoping for the change to happen by next season should probably lower their expectations. The league will probably roll out the system in the G League first before it reaches the NBA level, which should take at least another full season.

The NBA was likely encouraged by the success of MLB’s Automated Ball-Strike system implemented this season. And while ABS challenges lengthen MLB games, an automated out-of-bounds system should help speed up NBA games, in part by eliminating the need to review such calls.