Major League Baseball is restricting the use of iPads in the dugout to prevent the tablets from running artificial intelligence to aid decision-making.
The tablets can access video and data provided by the league, and also include custom tabs that allow teams to access other programs. MLB blocked teams from accessing custom tabs starting Wednesday night when the second half of the season began.
“In many cases, the custom tabs extended the use of the dugout iPad beyond its original purpose to include recommendations for substitutions, pitch calls, and other in-game decisions traditionally made by players and coaches,” Morgan Sword, MLB’s executive vice president of baseball operations, wrote in a June 11 memo to general managers, assistant GMs and video coordinators.
The memo was first reported by The Athletic and obtained by The Associated Press.
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A review by the competition committee found that the club had complied with the regulations.
“Introducing this ban from the second half of the season is intended to provide clubs that have relied on custom tabs with appropriate lead time to make the necessary adjustments,” Sword wrote.
MLB began a pilot program that allowed limited use of iPads in the dugout late in the 2015 season, and expanded its use in 2016 under a deal with Apple. Video was scrapped for the 2020 coronavirus season following the Houston Astros’ sign-stealing scandal, but was brought back in 2021.
