MLB Bans AI on Dugout iPads
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- MLB is restricting dugout iPads to prevent artificial intelligence from being used for in-game decisions, making custom tabs inaccessible starting Wednesday night as the second half of the season began.
- Morgan Sword, MLB executive vice president of baseball operations, wrote in a June 11 memo to GMs, assistant GMs, and video coordinators that the custom tab had expanded beyond its original purpose to include recommendations on substitutions, pitch calling, and other decisions traditionally made by players and coaches.
- The prohibition was timed to the second half of the season to give clubs that had relied on the custom tab "appropriate lead-time to make any necessary adjustments," per Sword's memo.
- MLB's competition committee reviewed club usage and found them compliant with regulations, even as the league moved to close the AI loophole.
- The memo was first reported by The Athletic and obtained by The Associated Press.
- MLB launched its dugout iPad pilot late in the 2015 season, expanded it in 2016 under a deal with Apple, pulled video during the 2020 COVID season after the Houston Astros sign-stealing scandal, then restored it in 2021.
Why it matters: MLB is drawing a hard line on AI-assisted decision-making before the technology becomes embedded in dugout strategy, forcing any club that built custom-tab workflows around substitutions and pitch calling to revert to human-only calls for the second half. The timing — midseason, after a compliance review — signals the league wants to police the line before it blurs, not after a scandal forces its hand.
