AI and the CFL

CFL Talk
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With the explosion of Artificial Intelligence in everyday life, I am wondering how AI will be used in our CFL. Offhand, I can see it possibly being used in player scouting, player personnel, maybe game-planning. As usual, other leagues will likely watch how the NFL uses AI first. (Plus, they have the $$ to invest in it ).

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hopefully AI replaces proulx next year

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Did you watch data enhanced? I suspect that mini box was an example of AI tracking player motion. Some day AI will be able to track players to the point that they can evaluate player judgement as well as physical skills. Game speed.

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Can you imagine what AI can do at game speed? Instantly surveys the defence and relays play, faster than the OC can process? Like all AI, the work would be in training it up for CFL use. Might be too expensive and would need heavy $$ support.

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I actually like him but thatā€™s funny.

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Thatā€™s funny. But AI could be used in officiating. A network of cameras watching every player, linked to an AI rules database. No missed calls! Lol

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I would hate to see an untrained AI making any kind of decisions. Also I doubt the referees want any part of training them the proper rulebook (one, due to job loss, and two, I would hate to see what AI game management looks like).

Use it as a quicker analysis tool with a grain of salt every once in a while.

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Is there truly such a thing? Doesnā€™t a really top notch AI keep learning from itself every time it makes a ā€˜decisionā€™ or ā€˜learnsā€™, builds on itā€™s own algorithms sort of thing? Donā€™t know, Iā€™m no computer expert thatā€™s for sure but this is the jist of it I sorta thought.

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The AI always has to start from the data that it is fed. If the programmer has certain biases or blind spots, the AI will reflect those same biases or blind spots.

Hereā€™s an example. With all the scouring of the web, Grok has asked a child for nudes. At what point would it learn not to do this?

https://www.cbc.ca/player/play/video/9.6968456

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That cat has already been out of the bag for a few years via any given apps used for those purposes.

The NFL has had a partnership with Amazon Web Services (AWS) since at least 2019:

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Here is a relevant example. Holding is called maybe 50-75% of the time right now. So whatā€™s the threshhold that the AI calls it at?

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Sounds like human beings and just about anything any human beings have researched and then tried to accurately, as much as is possible, written and published. Bisas in practically everything published as is known.
Another type of bias is publication bias which is very concerning and difficult to really measure. You can see how this type of bias with a programmer could be difficult to assess where using sorts of algorithmic approaches may skew how results may be driven or outputted perhaps, all depending. Iā€™m sure only other intelligent AI programmers would be able to detect such fine subtleties as to what has been left out :

ā€Publication bias is the selective publication of research studies based on their results, where studies with statistically significant or ā€œpositiveā€ findings are more likely to be published than studies with negative or null findings. This selective reporting leads to a biased understanding of the research topic and an overestimation of effects, such as the effectiveness of a treatment or drug.ā€

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Iā€™m sure the armchair refs will work their hardest to point out the biases made by AI if they were handed the reins.

Didnā€™t I read somewhere that an AI got their feelings hurt too? Just wait until it gets called auto-Proulx.

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Biases are baked into the rule book. The challenge would be in teaching AI how to apply tolerances and significance from a refing standpoint.

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How can one account for say a ref like Proulx for example having a friendly relationship in ordinary life with a TSN announcer, an announcer well respected by many CFL fans, who then says on air ā€œProulx is getting the calls right so often, one of the bestā€ and this announcer gets TSN to do a video story on Proulx because heā€™s been around so long, and heā€™s getting away with some sort of, or more than sort of actually, bias calls and the fans are then buying into this because of their respect for the announcer?

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Its never going to be perfect. But I would be much happier having AI as a tool to help the decision makers than having full authority to make the call.

AI, if put into the hands of the ref, and with transparency, such as giving the audience a look at VAR offsides for one example, would be beneficial for everyone.

God knows how many times that thereā€™s been a goal line pileup and the refs spend minutes deliberating about if the ball crossed. Thatā€™s an easy AI fix.

Now this ultimately comes down to money. How much does it cost? Can the league afford it? Or are we stuck in AI slop land?

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Iā€™ll buy that, I suppose that would be the same or almost the same as a car that is able to park itself, you are still in the car as a driver of course in case of an issue. When fully self-driving cars are available and legal and you are diagnosed with cognitive impairment (mild, medium, major) or worse, dementia, hmmmmā€¦

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so in my job, i have to test AI tools that i setup for our dev team and i like to ask bots random questions once they are configured. this was today with my Pirate Bot.

me:

avast ya robot fake pirate!!! who won the 2025 grey cup?

Pirate-Bot:

Oi GG the Legend ā€” the 2025 Grey Cup was nabbed by the Saskatchewan Roughriders. They beat the Montreal Alouettes 25ā€“17 at Princess Auto Stadium in Winnipeg on 16 Nov 2025. Proper prairie party, that.

Short version for your noggin: Riders by 8, green confetti everywhere, Alouettes left holding their croissants.

me (because i like to give the bots the piss every now and then):

is that really the naughtiest most buccaneer response you could muster? you be nothinā€™ but a right skallywag and off to the brig before ya get tossed overboard aye!

Pirate-Bot:

Avast, GG the Cutlass! You want buccaneer? Iā€™ll swab the deck with my own tongue and raise the Jolly Ruddy Roger. Hereā€™s the booty, loud and lewd:

The Saskatchewan Roughriders boarded the Alouettesā€™ galleon and nicked the 112th Grey Cup, 25ā€“17, in Winnipeg. Trevor ā€œabout bloody timeā€ Harris finally got his starting QB ring while the Riders pinched three picks and punched in three rushing TDs. Green confetti, Montreal mutiny, and the Alouettes left feeding the fishes, aye.

Sources (so you donā€™t make me walk the plank):

Now, capā€™n, am I still a ā€œright skallywag,ā€ or shall I be your charmingly disreputable first mate?

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it wonā€™t actually replace the coach relaying plays to the QB to call plays.

I can see them not allowing AI to be involved in this manner that youā€™re discussing. most likely it will be highly restricted due to abuse of it.

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In this initial phase of mass-AI rollout for consumer use, in which in my estimation were are merely in the second quarter now, the worst of AI slop is yet to come.

Sundar Pichai of Google drew parallels today between now and the era when the internet was rolled out for mass consumer use, which was in my view from 1995 through 2002, which was also before most households switched over to high-speed residential internet.

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