Artificial Intelligence or Unnatural Stupidity?

Messy humans and the dark beyond the Fulham firelight

This week’s Arsenal Wonderland comes in two parts. Part 1 is a contemplation on AI systems impact on football (and life), and Part 2 is a soothing tonic to quell the Zombie Narratives emerging from the game against Fulham.

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Riddled With Humanness

I was noodling around under an Arsenal article on The Athletic the other day (a diversion that unfortunately happens less and less these days), commenting about the rise of generative AI in football scouting. It wasn’t a great article. One of those puff pieces disguised as informative discussion. Anyway, I was rambling on about the Luddite’s (a very unfairly misrepresented group) and their cultural values and how AI and ChatGPT will never deliver us to any promised land. You know, typical football commentary stuff.

Further down the comment stream, beyond the meandering and interesting thoughts of my fellow commentators, I responded to a comment about the (invisible) biases that all AI platforms contain. After all, algorithms are written by humans who are, as we know, riddled with humanness, to say the least.

I was speculating that, as football is a mixture of styles and philosophies and cultures, and as entrenched biases would always be a (dangerous) feature of AI algorithms, how would generative AI effect the likelihood of say, the Relational Football philosophy thriving in a world of Positional Football dominance? Would these AI “tools” begin to restrict the perceptual space and instead enhance the encoding of various distinctions? How would the basic differences between these two footballing philosophies be effected by AI in the long run?

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It began to occur to me that, on some fundamental level (below questions of political economy and power), that AI is itself an attempt to create a haven of safety in the storm of life by divining the future. Here’s what I mean:

Take these football scouting generative AI systems for example. They are essentially trying to give each club an edge. They gather masses of data on players, and use that data to predict which players to buy, how players will respond in any given system, the strengths and weaknesses of any particular player, etc. etc. Essentially they’re robot scouts, who are, supposedly, less inclined to the “riddled with humanness” problem of human scouts.

The (problematic) core belief behind this techno-optimism is that these scouting AI systems (and any AI system for that matter) and human beings are essentially the same thing. Which means AI, with its powerful processing capacities, can and will outperform humans in predicting which players are the best for any club at any give time.

But this core belief is just not true. The truth is that humans and computing systems are not the same thing at all. And they never will be. AI isn’t some “human substitute” in-waiting, that’ll eventually become more human-like with better programming. Humans and AI systems will always be categorically different entities.

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The other problem are these invisible biases in the algorithms. You see, the baseline data input of an algorithm also becomes the limit to the AI's potential. So fundamentally different footballing philosophies, like Positional Football and Relational Football, are going to be affected by how the AI “see’s” the world. The inherent biases in the algorithms will inevitable create outcomes and affect the world instead of merely seeing it.

There's a certain irony to the fact that the utilisation of these specific football AI predictive systems is made in order to "discover" unknown possibilities or patterns in future events, only to find that the intervention itself is, in fact, having an effect on the outcomes (a strange and eerie mirroring of the observer effect in quantum mechanics, even if in a totally clumsy and farfetched analogous kinda way).

I mentioned in the comment flow under the article that “Sometimes I think when we compare our skills and computational capacity to the enormous complexity of life, it's like throwing a sundial at a quantum computer and expecting there to some analytical advantage in doing so”, which I thought was hilariously amusing but was met with a wall of silence, reminding me of the reaction of my kid’s to some of my “hilarious” comments in real life.

Anyway, the point is we seem to cling to the hope that AI systems in general will help us to gain an edge over the future, get an insight into what's likely to happen, to outwit the dark beyond the firelight, so to speak. These AI systems are about giving us (certainly not “us” but some groups anyway) power whilst concurrently reducing our fears. But, tragically, what they're actually doing is limiting our ability to move beyond the firelight by setting invisible (and biased) parameters to the sphere of future potential.

Sure is a funny old world.

A Soothing Tonic On Your Roller Coaster?

2 wins and a draw. 7 points from 9. And yet, this season’s obituary is already being written. Don’t we realise that Man City are literally a team of robots who can now claim victory after only three match days, with thirty-five left to play? Kai Havertz, playing his way into the complex demands of Artetaball and already he’s useless, a waste of money and over-hyped? And then there’s Arteta who’s apparently gone raving Mini-Pep mad with his too complex systems and his pointless tinkering with a successful system? Has time run out aready?

There sure is a wind of ill content blowing through the Arsenalverse. Crystal balls are being thrown from Arsenal branded prams across the planet. Ye gods what’s happening?

Let me pour a cool soothing balm on this inflamed torment. Let me spread a little Arsenal Zombie Narrative Antidote, because things are getting pretty frazzled here in the Arsenal Social Media Town.

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Ok, so I love a good narrative as much as anyone, after all here I am, once again, typing up another one. But let’s at least expect a good narrative. You know, one with a twisting and turning plot, full of struggling characters overcoming adversity whilst engaged in multiple conflicts across the full season. Let’s not suffer a re-hashed version of these dime novel Arsenal-agony narratives we suffered last season.

So, on the Kai Havertz business. Here’s a few names; Thierry Henry, Dennis Bergkamp, Robin Van Persie, Robert Pires and even the redemption King himself, Granit Xhaka. Every one of these players had a poor start. In fact in the case of Bergkamp the similarity is striking. Both arrived at Arsenal after struggling in teams that weren’t playing well and both had played out of position before coming to a new system. Newspapers gloated that “Bergy’s A Waste Of Money”. They said Pires was too physically slight to make it in the rough and tumble of the Premiership (take a bow Fabio Vieira, what a brilliant substitute’s display in the Fulham match - shame the Arsenal Zombie Narratives have you down as too much of a tricycle riding chicken-little to be any good).

OK, of course Kai Havertz might never replicate the Arsenal career’s of these brilliant players. But then again, he might. It’s just way too early to tell. But we can be sure of one thing; having the stadium turn against him ain’t gonna help. What Kai needs is a dose of that Arsenal support from the Leicester game when Saliba headed in that own goal. The crowd cheered his every move from then on, they took him to their hearts and helped him change the narrative completely whilst providing the never-ending booming backing track of Tequila. Or that Arsenal attitude that, when Jesus was injured last season, got behind (the oft-maligned) Eddie, to the banging backing track of Book Boom Nketiah’s In The Room. Are two wins and a draw really enough to pollute our Arsenal Atmosphere?

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And Arteta. Maybe he is in Experimentation Mode (after Timber was felled and those plans were scrapped). Maybe he is trying to dance to a Cruyffian beat and build a fluid Dream Team of multi-positional players. Good. I hope so. Keep it up. Changes in football’s tactical landscape don’t happen without managers like Arteta trying things. Teams don’t gel and learn without going through some “learning moments”. Dominating possession against a team that has never won at Arsenal isn’t a terrifying strategy, it’s hardly Mini-Pep madness, it’s exactly what we should be doing.

Yes, of course there are issues. There’s always issues. Another quick goal against us, sloppy passing, lack of delicate intricacy and finishing, not being up-to-speed, The Strange Case Of Missing Gabriel Magalhaes, players rustily finding their rhythm and roles. There are various things that need adjusting and tightening. Gaps that need filling, literally. But let’s not turn on ourselves or capitulate quite yet, eh Gunners!

Besides, isn’t this what we fans really want? To strap ourselves into North London’s latest red roller-coaster? To stand on that 10-meter board and peer down? To get into the groove booming out of the Arsenal Club? To wait in anticipation for that fat bass beat to start booming? Let’s remember we’ve signed up for the agony of fandom and this uncertainty and anxiety and not actually knowing what’s going to happen, this is EXACTLY what agony of fandom is like!

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Every season has its own unique set of circumstances. Every season comes hand in hand with a set of expectations born directly from the season before. And every season comes “riddled with humanness”. And long may it last, because I for one don’t want an AI driven computational landscape where all the thrills and spills are algorithmically removed and all that’s left is for us to capitulate on the third day!

So there you go fellow Gooner’s. Hope you’ve enjoyed this week’s Arsenal Wonderland. Next week I think I’ll cover another player, no promises, depends on the dog really, who knows where he’ll lead me. But until then, if any of you have read this far and want to restock this article in the Substack Notes, then go right ahead, that’d be great.