--- title: "NBA Commissioner Announces Plans to Let AI Take Over for Lazy Referees" description: "NBA commissioner Adam Silver recently soft-launched a vague AI program meant to automate controversial line calls." date: "2026-05-28" modified: "2026-05-28" authors: - name: "Joe Wilkins" job_title: "Correspondent" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/jwilkins" url: "https://futurism.com/artificial-intelligence/nba-commissioner-ai-lazy-referees" categories: - "Artificial Intelligence" --- # NBA Commissioner Announces Plans to Let AI Take Over for Lazy Referees ![A basketball referee shown from behind holding a basketball in his right hand over a field of blue.]() *Illustration by Tag Hartman-Simkins / Futurism. Source: Shutterstock* Anyone who's sat through this year's NBA playoffs has probably noticed: the basketball league has a big problem with its referees. There's the [poor flopping management]() for starters, where players try to exaggerate or fabricate physical contact with opposing teams in order to draw penalty calls. Flopping has become something of an epidemic over the 2026 playoffs, with [certain suspects]() flailing to the floor on one in every ten field goal attempts. Then there are the missed non-physical violations. During a critical [game five matchup]() in Oklahoma City earlier this week, refs flubbed a major out-of-bounds call at a crucial point in the later half of the game. Making matters worse, they refused to overturn the call even after huddling to review their decision. That kicked off some [major discourse online]() about the call in particular, and the quality of NBA refs in general. Like his refs, NBA commissioner Adam Silver evidently has his eyes elsewhere. Speaking [on the *Pat McAfee Show*](), Silver used that game five controversy as a springboard to soft-launch a new AI initiative, which he says could take over for human refs in critical moments. "The officiating is incredible," Silver said, defending NBA officials. "I think, in terms of replay, I think we're going to get to the point fairly quickly where, for example out-of-bounds... where, just like \[when\] you're a tennis fan and they have Hawk-Eye... we're gonna move to a system like that, where that whole category of calls will be automatic." Hawk-Eye refers to a Sony-owned camera system which uses high-speed sensors to help refs in sports like baseball, cricket, and soccer make accurate calls on close plays. While Sony advertises the service as accurate within [0.1 inches](), it's had [quite a few controversies]() itself, and is certainly no substitute for solid refereeing in the moment — a distinction other major league sports commissioners seem [well aware of](). According to Silver, however, the NBA's automated system would supplement referees for line calls, not augment them. "Those calls will be done by an AI automated system, with cameras lined around the court, and it'll take all those so-called objective calls out of the hands of the referees," Silver explained. "It'll just be instantaneous, it'll be automatic, just play on, y'know, let's go, Spurs in-bounds, and you move on." https://twitter.com/espn/status/2059779672968249851?s=20 Whether such a system is immediately in the works for the 2026-2027 season was not immediately clear, but the theory seems to be that AI would free up officials to pay more attention to physical issues, like flopping. But poor refereeing, many fans argue, could be better resolved by urging human officials to [enforce existing rules]() and simply admit when they [get calls wrong]() — not by cramming AI into the product. "Idc how much I complain about the refs, I don't want AI in my basketball game," one Los Angeles Lakers fan grumbled [on X-formerly-Twitter](). "Smh." "It's like everything he says is supposed to be a way to decrease confidence in the product," [mused]() writer and New York Knicks devotee Noah Kulwin. "Worst commish in sports or worst commish in sports?" **More on AI automation:** *[AI Is Giving Your Boss Tools to Be More Monstrous Than Ever Before]()* ## Author At Futurism, I focus on the intersection of technology and power — examining the economics, history, and politics behind today’s dystopian headlines. As a writer, I’m interested in topics ranging from AI’s impact on labor to startups nobody asked for. My prior work includes bylines in Jacobin, Verso, and Blue Labyrinths. My work for Futurism has been cited by publications including Forbes, The Guardian, MIT Technology Review, Time, The Nation, Mother Jones, The Verge, and Wired. I grew up in Michigan, attending Central Michigan University as well as Ball State University, where I earned a master of music. I now live in Brooklyn with my girlfriend and our cat Ziti. On weekends, you can find me hunched over a cold pint arguing geopolitics with the other transplants. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()