Today, NBA commissioner Adam Silver and San Antonio Spurs rookie Victor Wembanyama took to the stage at the league’s annual tech summit to run a demo of NB-AI, an NBA-trained voice assistant that will use generative AI technology to personalize watching live games on the NBA app.
No word on when the rest of us might be able to actually ask to see a NBA game in the animated style of Across the Spiderverse, but the demonstration does offer a peek into how the league is thinking about keeping our attention. Will the fans of the future be satisfied with a game unembellished by AI additions? The league isn’t taking any chances.
This isn’t the NBA app’s first dance with AI. In 2022, the league relaunched its app, built in partnership with Microsoft as its official cloud and AI partner, which give it new advanced personalization features, enhanced live game-viewing options, all powered by Azure AI.
Today’s NB-AI announcement comes a day after OpenAI revealed its new text-to-video AI platform, Sora, offering a further glimpse into a media future that appears to be wide open with possibilities.
As ripe with possibility as that future may be, most fans would might be more welcoming of an IRL solution to its ongoing challenges with referee complaints from fans, players, and coaches to make sure the game itself is as great as possible.
