ABC’s coverage of the NBA Finals will no longer include moving portraits made with AI tools, a source confirmed to Front Office Sports. ABC did not appear to include any moving portraits during Game 2 of the NBA Finals Friday between the Knicks and Spurs.
Online outrage surfaced after Game 1 when ESPN appeared to use AI to generate a photo of Spurs legend Tony Parker. An ESPN source confirmed to FOS on Thursday that the image of Parker was made with AI tools, and the company was “evaluating” whether it would continue using moving portraits for the remainder of the series.
A photo of Parker sitting on the Spurs logo after winning the 2003 NBA title was shown before an ad break in the third quarter of Game 1. The original image was a still shot, but Parker’s hand was moving on ESPN’s broadcast.
The moving image appeared to be altered by AI as Parker’s face did not resemble the still image, which can be found on NBA.com. Parker had a much wider smile on ABC’s altered image.
But Parker’s image was not the only instance of moving portraits aired on the broadcast. The source confirmed that there were two other times where similar technology was used to generate moving portraits of still images.
