Animated illustration of a robot spinning a basketball on its finger.
Illustration: Brendan Lynch/Axios
The San Antonio Spurs are embracing artificial intelligence to connect with fans across the globe and build team culture.
Why it matters: AI is rapidly changing the workforce, our world and even fandom.
State of play: The Spurs turn to ChatGPT to help with data analytics, community engagement and more, per a recent OpenAI post detailing the team's uses.
Some custom ways team employees use ChatGPT include:
Analyzing post-game comments on social media to provide summaries of their sentiment, allowing them to see what people love and where experiences can improve.
Alerting suspicious resale listings by comparing them to official Spurs inventory data.
Ingraining team values in day-to-day work by training ChatGPT on a 50-part docuseries on Spurs culture.
By the numbers: Spurs employees save more than 1,800 hours of work each month by using ChatGPT, per the post.
What they're saying: "We were looking to create real competitive advantages," RC Buford, CEO of Spurs Sports & Entertainment, said in a statement.
"Being early adopters of artificial intelligence is one powerful way to do that."
What's next: The Spurs are working with the University of Texas at San Antonio and the Air Force to study AI and coaching, per the post.
Disclosure: Axios and OpenAI have a licensing and technology agreement that allows OpenAI to access part of Axios' story archives while helping fund the launch of Axios into four local cities and providing some AI tools. Axios has editorial independence.