MLB shuts down AI pitch-calling after quiet dugout experiment

Major League Baseball has moved to shut down a practice several of its teams had been experimenting with quietly for months: using generative AI on dugout iPads to help make live in-game calls. The league’s new policy, which took effect Wednesday, bars any generative AI use on the iPads it issues to all 30 clubs.

The change followed an internal review after MLB found that some teams had gone well beyond the iPads’ intended purpose. A memo from the commissioner’s office, obtained by The New York Times, said certain clubs had built custom apps generating recommendations for ‘substitutions, pitch calling, and other in-game decisions traditionally made by players and coaches.’ The memo was sent out last month, giving teams more than four weeks to adjust before enforcement began.

How widespread was it? People familiar with the setups told the Times that roughly a third of MLB teams had used the AI-assisted features in some capacity. Some teams reportedly fed live game data into generative AI models to forecast the next pitch or suggest what to throw, building on a pitch-calling trend that people briefed on team systems say the Miami Marlins helped bring into the dugout, now practiced in some form by around six teams.

Notably, MLB’s review did not find any breach of the league’s existing sign-stealing or electronic-device rules, so the new policy carries no penalties. Still, one front-office executive told the Times the league wanted to get ahead of the issue: ‘Gotta stop the cheating before there’s cheating now.’

The dugout iPads themselves date back to 2016, with tighter controls added in 2021 after MLB’s sign-stealing scandals. Former league executive Chris Marinak said the devices were built to be fully locked down, restricted to league-approved video with no outside internet access. Under the new rules, teams can still load static, pre-game information onto the tablets, but any AI-generated suggestions produced during live play are now prohibited across the league.

Wikimedia Commons/by Keith Allison