Sports Teams Are Making the Same AI Mistake Newspapers Made With the Internet

The New Orleans Saints and Minnesota Timberwolves made pledges recently on X. No AI for graphics or illustrations. The sports world applauded. I didn’t.

I understand the instinct. Authenticity matters in the media world. Fans want to feel a human connection to the brands and people they follow. But the blanket rejection of AI as a creative tool doesn’t protect authenticity. It confuses the tool with the output. That confusion gives organizations embracing AI a significant competitive advantage over the ones that don’t.

Let’s start with X. When a post uses AI tools, X labels it “Made with AI.” The implication is that something you’re seeing isn’t real. It’s a scarlet letter for the digital age. That framing is fundamentally wrong. A graphic created with AI assistance isn’t fake. It’s the product of a human idea, human direction, and human creative judgment. When executed with a powerful tool, the outcome is better. Calling it fake is like calling a photograph fake because a camera was involved.

The Tool Has Never Been the Talent

Imaging producers have used Adobe Audition forever to make sound design more impactful. Graphic designers use Photoshop and Canva to create stronger images. Editors use Final Cut Pro and Premiere to make better videos. Each of those tools changes what’s creatively possible. None replaced the human driving them.

AI is the same category of advancement. It’s more powerful and transformative, but fundamentally the same principle. The creativity still belongs to the person holding the wheel. If you don’t train your model and utilize the right prompts, the final product will be underwhelming. Consequently, education, experimentation, and a creative brain remain vital to standing out.

The broader business world already understands this. Beehiiv CEO Tyler Denk has built one of the fastest-growing newsletter platforms in the country. He shared recently on LinkedIn that the best decision he made this year was connecting his entire business to Claude. He didn’t build a media technology company by fearing the tools reshaping his industry. He’s using them to strengthen his business.

Mark Cuban warned why not embracing AI will be a grave mistake. Cuban compared AI skeptics to those who once feared PCs and mobile devices. He has seen this pattern before and knows how it ends.

The New York Times uses AI. Axios uses it. TikTok built its entire recommendation engine on it. PR firms use it to enhance media strategy. Media buyers use it to optimize campaigns. We use it too — to enhance images, thumbnails, and videos, and for strategic decisions involving newsletters, social posts, and advertising. Additionally, every industry competing for audience attention and advertising dollars is all in. If tools exist that help you improve operations and effectiveness, why wouldn’t you use them? It’s professional suicide not to.

The Newspaper Parallel That Should Terrify Every Executive

There is a pattern in media history that plays out with painful regularity. New technology emerges. Media people immediately reject it, mock it, or declare it inauthentic. Then it takes over, and those who resisted spend years trying to catch up to those who embraced it.

Newspaper editors quickly rejected the internet. They called online publishing a fad. Print was declared superior and digital news was framed as less legitimate. Blogger became a popular term to label writers as unqualified. But the editors were wrong. Many are now gone. Publications that adapted survived. Those that didn’t disappeared.

In audio circles, many programmers initially rejected podcasting. Broadcast was considered legitimate. On-demand listening or podcasting was where less valuable content resided. The idea that digital audio would threaten radio for consumption and advertising dollars was considered far-fetched. They were wrong too.

Spotify now hosts around 7 million podcast titles. Apple Podcasts hosts approximately 2.9 million. According to Podcast Statistics, nearly 480,000 new shows launched in just the past three months alone. The medium many radio professionals dismissed now competes for the same ears, talent, and advertising dollars. Moreover, many view podcasting as a better long-term bet than radio itself. The programmers who adapted built new revenue streams and audiences. Those who didn’t are still trying to figure out what happened.

Missing the Point

The sports franchises making public pledges against AI creative tools are not protecting their authenticity. They’re protecting a comfort zone that carries an expiration date. Every hour their graphics team spends doing manually what AI could accomplish better and faster is an hour spent falling further behind organizations that have already figured out how to use human creativity and powerful tools together.

AI is not coming. It is here. It will only grow more capable, more accessible, and more deeply embedded in every creative and operational workflow in sports and media. The organizations wrapping their arms around it are building a daily structural advantage. The ones making admin promises on X are writing their own version of the newspaper editor who told his staff the internet was a fad.

The train is leaving. Whether you like it or not, seats are filling up fast. When you’re finally ready to board — don’t be surprised if there isn’t one left for you.

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Jason Barrett

Jason Barrett is the Founder and CEO of Barrett Media. The company launched in September 2015 and has provided consulting services to America’s top audio and video brands, while simultaneously covering the media industry at BarrettMedia.com, becoming a daily destination for media professionals. Prior to Barrett Media, Jason built and programmed 95.7 The Game in San Francisco, and 101 ESPN in St. Louis. He was also the first sports programmer for SportsTalk 950 in Philadelphia, which later became 97.5 The Fanatic. Barrett also led 590 The Fan KFNS in St. Louis, and ESPN 1340/1390 in Poughkeepsie, NY, and worked on-air and behind the scenes at 101.5 WPDH, WTBQ 1110AM, and WPYX 106.5. He also spent two years at ESPN Radio in Bristol, CT producing ‘The Dan Patrick Show’ and ‘GameNight’. JB can be reached on Twitter @SportsRadioPD or by email at Jason@BarrettMedia.com.

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