In a crackdown that has rankled some front offices across the league, Major League Baseball has effectively outlawed the growing practice of using league-provided dugout iPads to access generative artificial intelligence, which some teams had increasingly leaned upon to help shape in-game strategy.According to a commissioner’s office memo obtained by The Athletic, teams were pushing the boundaries of guidelines governing the use of technology by “in many cases” installing custom apps that expanded the use of the iPads “beyond their originally intended purpose to include recommendations regarding substitutions, pitch calling, and other in-game decisions traditionally made by players and coaches.”As much as a third of the league used the dugout iPads for at least one of these purposes, according to people with knowledge of the technology who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the issue candidly. The league memo was issued June 11 and gave teams more than a month to adjust before the ban took effect on Wednesday, in time for the start of the season’s second half Thursday.The mid-season policy change has been met with frustration by some front-office members tasked with innovation. “It’s caused quite the stir,” said one high-ranking official of an MLB team’s research and development department. But even members of more data-friendly front offices say the trend raised eyebrows within the industry because of how many decisions made by managers and coaches could be aided by or even potentially replaced by technology, such as pitch calling or player substitutions.MLB seemed to harbor similar concerns. The league’s review ultimately found “all clubs were compliant” with the league’s rules governing sign stealing and electronic-device usage, per MLB’s memo. The tech ban therefore did not come with punishment.However, the issue proved urgent enough for the league to act mid-season in hopes of curbing the growth of these apps.Said one front office executive: “Gotta stop the cheating before there’s cheating now.”MLB declined comment but referred to the memo, which was issued by the league’s executive vice president of baseball operations, Morgan Sword. The players’ union also declined comment.League-provided iPads were first introduced into dugouts league-wide in 2016, though their usage was more tightly regulated in 2021 after sign-stealing scandals rocked the sport.