I have a very low opinion of AI-generated art, and there’s a lot of evidence that I’m not alone. In fact, a Pew Research study from September found that 53% of Americans believe artificial intelligence is ruining creativity.
A majority opinion won’t slow the momentum, though. There are plenty of marketing campaigns aimed at making you think that pop culture has already turned that corner. People crave AI-generated slop now!
Remember that story about the AI country song that went to the top of the charts? Musician and YouTuber Rick Beato has a pretty good breakdown of what exactly happened and the evidence that the song came along with an astroturfing campaign of minimal effort to push it to the top of Billboard’s Digital Sales chart.
Last week, Time named “the Architects of AI” its Person of the Year for 2025. This is where I remind you that Adolf Hitler, Joseph Stalin, and Vladimir Putin have all been named Person of the Year at one point (two points in Stalin’s case), so the title isn’t necessarily an honor. But it is a reflection of who dominated our conversations and had an impact on our lives.
Most Americans are not idiots. They see AI for what it is – cost-cutting repackaged as innovation. A lot of money and natural resources are being poured into convincing you that C- work deserves an A+. It’s a bubble that is bound to burst. That doesn’t mean AI is going away. It means that the need for and appeal of AI is pretty limited.
There isn’t going to be room for ALL of these companies to survive, let alone thrive, so they are all going to every business they can think of and pitching the ways AI can make their product stand out. That includes the sports media.
Now, will we ever get to a point where networks are broadcasting fully AI-generated events? Probably. Will people watch? I mean, I think watching other people play video games is peak loser behavior, but Twitch and Steam exist for a reason, so yeah, probably.
But short of a full takeover, there are other ways that networks can be sold, where AI slop is better than real creativity and/or effort. Let’s talk about 3 ways AI can ruin sports television.
Interviews With Dead People
We have kind of already seen this. Remember when Fox included that weird AI-assisted tribute to Jimmy Johnson during the Super Bowl pregame this year?
That included a lot of old Jimmy talking to young Jimmy. So our toes are firmly in the water there.
Outside of the sports world, we saw conservative performance artist Glenn Beck “interview” an AI version of George Washington last week. Why he decided to make the first president sexy is anyone’s guess. Why did the cartoon cherry tree murderer just spit back most of Glenn Beck’s regular talking points about morality? I mean, you don’t have to guess. Beck was making a propaganda video.
But the video did show how easy it is to make and frame one of these segments. With Fox already interested in the technology, why would it be crazy to think the network could have Ken Rosenthal interview a version of Babe Ruth or Jackie Robinson before a World Series game?
Amazon is all in on AI. I could see Prime Video airing a segment featuring Dale Earnhardt Jr. talking to his late father ahead of one of the NASCAR races the streaming giant carries. Although I’ll admit that I would hope good taste would prevent producers from pushing that on Junior.
Maybe I am missing a sense of wonder, but those all sound like boring, cheap time-fillers to me. Babe Ruth is dead. Why would I care what he thinks of Shohei Ohtani? Or, maybe more cynically, why would I believe an “interview” airing on the network carrying the game would come to any conclusion other than “This game is going to be really exciting. You should watch it!”?
Afternoon Debate Shows
Despite what the paychecks ESPN has broken off recently for Stephen A. Smith and Pat McAfee would have you believe, the age of the sports media superstar ended with the rise of podcasts, YouTube, and social media influencers.
If I can find commentary on my team any time I want from people that are as passionate as I am, why am I sitting through big, broad shows built to have national appeal? They are just one of countless options I have for sports content.
ESPN has already mined YouTube to find contributors and future stars. FS1 found Nick Wright and Danny Parkins on local radio stations in Houston and Chicago, respectively. At some point, a network is going to crawl all the way to the bottom of the paycheck barrel and generate fake debates between fake hosts.
Just like AI Jimmy Johnson, the first steps have already been taken. I don’t believe that NBC’s plans for AI end with the recreated voice of Al Michaels delivering highlights from the Olympics.
Play-By-Play
This is the big one. It’s scary, and it’s probably closer to becoming a reality than we want to believe. Some network is going to replace human beings in the broadcast booth with AI.
Will it be at the national level? I don’t think so. There is a lot of truth to Bob Costas’s theory that contracts like Tom Brady’s with FOX are meant to show the NFL how dedicated the network is to the league. Broadcasting is a competitive business, and when billion-dollar properties are on the line, no network wants to be the one with a reputation for cutting corners.
At the local level, though, that’s a very different story. Even if the team doesn’t always own the regional sports networks that carry the games, the broadcast itself usually does.
Five NHL franchises have already done away with a dedicated radio broadcast in favor of simulcasting one broadcast across TV and radio. The result typically favors the TV audience, but the result is always the same. One audience is “less important” and gets stuck with an inferior product.
Why is it crazy to think that some team owner, probably in a smaller market, is going to have the bright idea that the quality of the broadcast doesn’t matter at all? After all, viewers got used to networks cutting corners just to get something on the air during the pandemic. So what if the robot voice is a little bit behind the action playing out on the court, field, or ice?
I don’t fear AI. I just don’t like being told “that’s just rain on your leg” as network executives zip up their flies. There’s no world in which this slop is making TV better. Networks use it because it’s cheaper than human employees. As a result, the product looks cheap, and the people in charge do not care.
About Demetri Ravanos