The Oakland Ballers let an AI manage the team. What could go wrong?

In a bold move reminiscent of a classic episode of The Simpsons, the Oakland Ballers, an independent baseball team, turned to artificial intelligence to manage their game. This decision follows a whimsical spirit of experimentation that the team has embraced since its inception by edtech entrepreneur Paul Freedman. The Ballers were established as an alternative to the now-departed Oakland A’s, and have since gained a passionate local fanbase. After just two seasons, the Ballers celebrated their first championship in Oakland since 1989, showcasing their unique position as a minor league team with the creative liberty often reserved for major league franchises. Freedman explained their vision: "We can have creative flexibility. We can play with things and experiment with things way before the MLB or NBA could do something." The team has a history of testing new technologies, which is common in minor league baseball. Last year, they partnered with Fan Controlled Sports, allowing fans to make real-time managerial decisions. However, this led to some humorous but questionable choices, like asking a pitcher to pinch hit. This season, the Ballers took a more structured approach by collaborating with Distillery, an AI company, to let an AI manage a game based on extensive baseball data. Freedman described baseball as an ideal environment for AI experimentation due to its data-driven nature, allowing for decisions to be made after every pitch. Distillery trained OpenAI’s ChatGPT on over a century of baseball analytics, including data from the Ballers, enabling it to mimic the strategic decisions of the human coach, Aaron Miles. The AI’s management of the game went smoothly, mirroring the choices Miles would have made, except for a necessary substitution due to a sick catcher. Miles humorously accepted the AI’s role, even extending a tablet for a handshake in a pre-game gesture. However, the AI experiment sparked mixed reactions from fans. Many felt it represented a shift away from the sport’s traditional values, with some expressing concerns about corporate greed in sports. Freedman acknowledged the fans' backlash, stating that while he didn’t expect such reactions, the conversation around the benefits and drawbacks of AI in sports is valuable. "It never feels good to have your fans be like, ‘We hate this,’ but it’s important to discuss these technologies before they become entrenched in the game," he said. Despite the controversy, the Ballers remain committed to their innovative spirit, even if it means stepping back from AI management in the future.