Basketball Victoria embracing technology and use of AI

The use of artificial intelligence (AI), it’s possibilities and the fears surrounding it’s infiltration of everyday life is a common thread currently throughout the Victorian sports industry but Jodie Harlow from Basketball Victoria (BV) believes there is a real opportunity for community sport to embrace, and trust, technology.

Community Development Manager at BV, Jodie recently presented at the National Sports and Physical Activity Convention where she discussed adopting AI technology to support managing her everyday workload.

“I talked about how I use AI to manage mine and my staff’s day to-day workload as well as things like creating reports and analysing data,” Jodie said. “As opposed to spending around three hours per day on a single task, these programs crunch the numbers in just seconds which really frees up your day.

“That is where there is a real opportunity for community sport to embrace it. At that level, we know everyone is time poor, there aren’t enough staff and not enough resources. Tasks such as analysing and understanding data is not something we do well at a community sport level but I think it is mainly because we don’t have the time.”

ChatGPT is Jodie’s preferred program but that has not stopped her dabbling with other apps as she continually tests the waters to see which best suits her needs.

“ChatGPT was the one I jumped into first and is still the one I use the most but I have explored others such as Claude and Perplexity,” she said.

“My preferred method is to stick with one platform and really get to know it, figure out it’s capabilities and limitations. But I will sometimes try the same prompt in different programs to see what it comes up with; it is definitely worth having a play around.”

When it comes to privacy, use of data and fear of the unknown, Jodie understands why some are cautious to get into the AI space. Ultimately, she believes the benefits outweigh those concerns though while BV have been careful to install specific privacy measures.

“I wasn’t scared of the technology, I am actually excited about it and until you use the programs yourself, I think it’s wrong to form too many assumptions. I think it’s like anything, if you embrace it, you have a better ability to learn.

“In saying that, there certainly are risks attached to its usage which you have to mitigate. The way myself and BV have approached it is, if the work is not public facing, don’t share it to ChatGPT. This is no different than sharing a spreadsheet in an email to a stakeholder, you want to remove any identifying points that should not be seen by externals.

“I have worked in sport for over 20 years and in state and federal departments so privacy is always at the forefront of my mind. My main advice is, if it is not for the public, it’s not for ChatGPT either.”

With technology ever evolving, the National Sports and Physical Activity Convention described embracing AI and digital tools as “no longer a luxury but a strategic imperative”. This is a sentiment that Jodie echoes.

“AI is here to stay,” she said. “Those that do not embrace it, will get left behind. I believe if you are looking at jumping into a new role, whether that be in the sports industry or otherwise, knowledge of AI will be required.

“It has become a question I ask my associations, ‘what are you doing in the AI space?’ And they usually say that they think it is controversial or that it is too scary, but I really encourage them to embrace it.”