AI Cameras Mistook Referee's Bald Head As The Actual Ball, People Were Pissed

The use of artificial intelligence has been increasing over the past few years across various fields with mixed results. After all, AI is no human and it can make the mistakes that humans would never do.

In this example, new AI cameras that Inverness Caledonian Thistle FC (ICTFC) uses to cover their games made a hilarious mistake. They were trained to follow the ball, but when filming a recent game, the cameras kept mistaking the bald head of a referee with the actual ball.

As a result, it became a hilarious match in which viewers mostly saw the referee instead of the ball. But this accident was obviously not funny for those watching the match from home due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

A few weeks ago, ICTFC announced that it would stop using human cameramen, saying that:

“ICTFC will utilize live footage supplied by the newly installed Pixellot camera system installed at Caledonian Stadium. The Pixellot system uses cameras with in-built, AI, ball-tracking technology to produce live HD footage of all home SPFL Championship matches at Caledonian Stadium, which will then be broadcast directly to ICTFC Season Ticket holders and those purchasing a PPV match via a centrally operated streaming platform at StreamAMG.”

At the time, they couldn’t have known the decision would lead to such a hilarious result. Those who watched the match complained about constantly missing their team's goals because of the poor performance of the AI cameras.

They suggested that the referee use a hat or a toupe during the match to reduce the confusion of the robot cameras. Maybe the camera system will be improved to fix this flaw and recognize things better, but until that time, the human cameramen may have their jobs back.

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