Artificial Intelligence in Baseball

With the MLB playoffs going on right now, good umpires and well officiated games are more important than ever. But what if we could get perfect officiating with AI? And if so, how far away are we from this?

I happen to be friends with people who are both into sports as well as artificial intelligence, which may sound like a silly combo, but in reality, are going to coexist quite a lot in the near future. AI in sports is already becoming a thing.

In tennis, there are tiny cameras on the court that track the balls every time they hit the court. From there, there is a computer generated model that shows whether or not the ball was in or out on the tennis court. If a player challenges the judges call, the play goes the AI machine to see whether or not the ball was in or out. The machine then reveals who gets the point, oftentimes building a show for the crowd.

For baseball, AI exists in replacement of umpires. There are machines that have been built, and are continuing to be built, to examine pitches thrown. They analyze where the pitch lands in the strike zone and whether or not the pitch is a strike or a ball. If you've ever seen that square on TV during a baseball game, that's exactly what it is.

It's only a matter of time now, though, that the little square we see on TV takes the job of an umpire.