Spider-Verse writer Chris Miller slammed the NBA for trying to copy the animation style of the famed Sony movie to liven up basketball games, allowing artificial intelligence technology to let the audience watch games in “movie mode.”
In addition, Miller also claimed that the NBA never asked permission or reached out to the studio in any way before “scraping” the style of the animated movie.
NBA Releases AI Technology That Turns Basketball Games Into Spider-Verse Style Movie
NBA commissioner Adam Silver and San Antonio Spurs rookie Victor Wembanyama introduced and demonstrated the latest innovation on the NBA app. During the league’s annual tech summit, they showed a demo of the NB-AI, a voice assistant that uses AI technology to personalize fans’ viewing experience on the app.
The demo offered a glimpse of what viewers can see while watching on their devices, such as an activation mode for NBA games in the animated style of Spider-Verse. Silver said during the presentation: “To me, I often think the NBA is like a great movie.”
Adam Silver and Wemby unveil NB-AI at NBA All-Star Tech Summit in Indy – now you can use your voice to activate “movie mode” and make a live NBA game look like your favorite film pic.twitter.com/NItNQSvyTC
— NBA (@NBA) February 16, 2024
Later on, he gave an instruction: “NB-AI, show me the Pacers game as if it were a Spider-Man movie.” The system only took a bit to generate the animation, and the game indeed resembled the Spider-Verse movie.
This is not the first time the NBA used artificial intelligence technology to improve its app. In 2022, the company collaborated with Microsoft as an official cloud and AI partner to enhance live game-viewing options. Silver also stated (via AP News):
“Today, AI is creating a similar excitement to what we saw around the early days of the internet. Intuitively, most of us have a sense that artificial intelligence is going to change our lives. The question, at least for me, is ‘How?’ ”
Wembanyama, on the other hand, expressed amazement at the sneak preview and claimed, “It’s still in the early days. Only the future will say what it will look like.” Indeed, the NBA continues to push for innovation and custom viewing options to satisfy its market.
Early this month, Silver spoke with Apple CEO Tim Cook about ways they can incorporate the Vision Pro headsets into the NBA. This newly introduced device combines physical reality with digital technology, allowing its users to multi-task and increase productivity.
Spider-Verse Writer Chris Miller Blasted NBA’s Latest AI Technology
Meanwhile, Spider-Verse co-producer Chris Miller was not impressed with this stunt from the NBA. He roasted the AI as well as accused the company of not informing them about “scraping” the animation style (via Twitter):
“I’m a big NBA fan, and I love that people are excited about Spider-Verse, but this janky-ass AI looks nothing like the hand-crafted innovative artistry of the films. For the record, as far as I know, they never reached out to us about “scraping” the film’s style.”
Those were really sharp criticisms from the Spider-Verse writer himself, hinting at the low-quality animation generated by the NB-AI as well as imitating the pop-art style with comic book accents without permission.
