AI Camera Ruins Football Game By Mistaking Referee's Bald Head For Ball

An AI camera at a football game in Scotland kept mistaking the referee's bald head for the ball, ruining the game for fans. According to the Daily Mail, Inverness Caledonian Thistle (ICT) played Ayr United on Saturday. Instead of employing a cameraman, the teams relied on an AI-powered camera that is programmed to follow the ball throughout the match.

"ICTFC will utilise live footage supplied by the newly installed Pixellot camera system installed at Caledonian Stadium. The Pixellot system uses cameras with in-built, AI, ball-tracking technology to produce live HD footage of all home SPFL Championship matches at Caledonian Stadium," ICT had proudly announced earlier this month while making the switch to automated cameras. 

Unfortunately, the plan went awry when the camera got confused and kept mistaking the referee's bald head for the football during Saturday's match. 

Everything is terrible. Here's a football match last weekend that was ruined after the AI cameraman kept mistaking the linesman's bald head for a football.https://t.co/BsoQFqEHu0 pic.twitter.com/GC9z9L8wHf

— James Felton (@JimMFelton) October 29, 2020

Several viewers were taken aback by the AI camera's blunder and took to social media to complain about it. 

Inverness Caledonian Thistle don't employ a cameraman as their camera is programmed to follow the ball throughout the match. The commentator had to apologise today as the camera kept on mistaking the ball for the linesman's head... pic.twitter.com/LeKsc2bEj7

— Tom Cox (@seagull81) October 24, 2020

Given that the match took place during the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, the stadium was empty and fans were watching the game on TV. Many complained that they missed their team's goals because the camera "kept thinking the Lino bald head was the ball."

The goof-up left social media users amused, with some people suggesting that the club provide the referee with a hat for future matches. 

A commentator reportedly apologised to fans for the error.