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ESPN is blaming a human for a mistake in an AI-generated article.
A recap of the Rockets’ 97–86 Summer League win over the Nuggets was posted to ESPN’s website on Saturday, with ESPN Generative AI Services listed as the author. Despite the Rockets winning, the original headline read “Rockets’ Thornton sparks Nuggets to win.”
The headline was fixed on Monday, but not before another error was made. The first edit read “Thornton sparks Rockets in over Nuggets.” Later in the day, the headline was changed to “Thornton sparks Rockets in win over Nuggets.”
An ESPN spokesperson tells Front Office Sports the mistakes are not AI’s fault, but rather the result of editing mistakes by a human. “No article is published to the site without an editor reading it and manually publishing it,” the spokesperson said.
ESPN first began using AI to write game recaps in September 2024, with the goal of enhancing its coverage of under-served sports. AI has written recaps for PLL, NWSL, NCAA baseball/softball, G League, and now Summer League games.
Saturday’s mistake wasn’t the first. An AI recap of Alex Morgan’s final professional soccer match in 2024 initially included only basic information about the game, failing to mention Morgan or her emotional sendoff.
ESPN most recently received backlash during the NBA Finals for using an AI-generated image of Tony Parker on the broadcast. The reaction from fans was strong enough to result in the network stopping its usage of AI on moving portraits for the remainder of the series.
