Stuart Fenton -Head of AI - talks on The Artificial Human

[purleyroyal]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m002xdpl

[Marcel]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m002xdpl

More AI bullshit. I bet that’s a mind numbing load of old bollocks.
Will give it a miss thanks.

[SouthDownsRoyal]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m002xdpl

More AI bullshit. I bet that’s a mind numbing load of old bollocks.
Will give it a miss thanks.

Yeah, this.

[Green]

For the click shy

In Episode 3 of the BBC Radio 4 podcast The Artificial Human ("Can AI help us win the World Cup?"), Stuart Fenton, the Head of AI at Reading FC—notably the first person to hold this specific title at an English professional football club—shares how artificial intelligence is changing the landscape of the sport both on and off the pitch.

His key points and insights from the episode include:

1. Demystifying the Technology
Fenton emphasizes that AI isn't a magical "light switch" you flip to instantly make a football team smarter. Instead, a massive part of his role involves doing heavy "data foundation work" and translating what AI capabilities actually mean in a practical footballing context.

2. A "Top to Bottom" Club Education
He highlights that AI adoption requires cultural buy-in. To achieve this, Fenton has run AI education sessions across every department at Reading FC—including executive leadership, office staff, players, and even the groundskeeping crew—ensuring everyone understands how the technology can augment their specific daily tasks.

3. Practical AI Applications in Football
Fenton explains that Reading FC focuses on real-world, practical use cases for AI rather than just futuristic hype:

Performance & Vision AI: Partnering with tech companies to use advanced video analytics (Vision AI) to recognize match patterns, accelerate tactical insights, and improve player recruitment.

Operations & Fan Engagement: Finding ways to hyper-personalize communications for global fans (e.g., translating and tailoring content so a Reading supporter in Portugal gets the same engaging club experience as a local fan).

4. The "Great Equalizer"
Fenton notes that football data has become heavily democratized—most tracking systems, video metrics, and performance analytics are now available to clubs at all tiers. Because data itself is no longer an exclusive advantage for elite teams, the true edge lies in how clubs utilize and action that data. For a club striving to climb back into the upper leagues, he views AI as a powerful equalizer to compete with clubs that possess vastly superior financial resources.

5. Augmentation, Not Replacement
A core philosophy Fenton champions is that AI should be used to augment humans, not replace them. The most successful football clubs won't be the ones trying to fully automate decision-making or replace coaches with robots; they will be the ones that masterfully merge sophisticated technology with human expertise.

[Linden Jones' Tash]

'Football club removes online shop items with spelling errors

A League One football club has said images of team merchandise on sale in its online shop - featuring the club's name spelt incorrectly - were used in error.

Reading Football Club's online store showed a listing for a woolly bobble hat with a club badge that read "Readino Footrall Club". Another woolly hat's club badge read "Readng".

It is has not been confirmed how the mistakes were made.

Reading Football Club said the listings had been removed, adding: "We thank the BBC for bringing these images to our attention."

In a statement, the football club explained that, "assets remained on our online store in error and have now been removed".

The club added: "Reading Football Club has a talented in-house creative team, supported by a leading design agency and photographer, producing high-quality creative content across the club's digital platforms."

The BBC has checked the physical product at Reading's shop and, at the time, the club's name was spelt correctly.'

From BBC website

So the roll out of AI is going well then....

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c8jne4rld3no

[stealthpapes]

“The BBC has checked the physical product at Reading's shop and, at the time, the club's name was spelt correctly.'”

Oh.

[Green]

“The BBC has checked the physical product at Reading's shop and, at the time, the club's name was spelt correctly.'”

Oh.

And they say local journalism is dead

[SouthDownsRoyal]

'Football club removes online shop items with spelling errors

A League One football club has said images of team merchandise on sale in its online shop - featuring the club's name spelt incorrectly - were used in error.

Reading Football Club's online store showed a listing for a woolly bobble hat with a club badge that read "Readino Footrall Club". Another woolly hat's club badge read "Readng".

It is has not been confirmed how the mistakes were made.

Reading Football Club said the listings had been removed, adding: "We thank the BBC for bringing these images to our attention."

In a statement, the football club explained that, "assets remained on our online store in error and have now been removed".

The club added: "Reading Football Club has a talented in-house creative team, supported by a leading design agency and photographer, producing high-quality creative content across the club's digital platforms."

The BBC has checked the physical product at Reading's shop and, at the time, the club's name was spelt correctly.'

From BBC website

So the roll out of AI is going well then....

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c8jne4rld3no

Embarrassing.

They need the BBC to point out the spelling mistakes that a 10 year old would notice.

Well done mr Fenton

[Webster750]

FWIW, I would assume Stuart has next to no influence over this and it’s instead an overworked and underqualified individual in the team running everything through ChatGPT etc.

There are also other items still on the store with such misspellings. They seem to have run a lot of images through AI, which is bizarre.

[Linden Jones' Tash]

doesn't this encapsulate the AI story beautifully:

1. save money on human photographers by using AI

2. don't bother to do a human QC

3. end up with a reputational hit and embarrassing story on the BBC


well, at least its only images and typos for a 3rd tier football club - imagine if it was a centre of excellence for AI....

oh...

[Linden Jones' Tash]

FWIW, I would assume Stuart has next to no influence over this and it’s instead an overworked and underqualified individual in the team running everything through ChatGPT etc.

There are also other items still on the store with such misspellings. They seem to have run a lot of images through AI, which is bizarre.

I would say it depends on whether an SOP exists and was followed/not followed.

if it was just unfortunate typos and a junior not checking correctly, I would agree that it's just a trivial thing and escalation is an overreaction.

But it's AI and the current context makes it interesting

[Esteban]

Being in the industry, I would say that's a classic case of the club paying a photographer to take the raw images, then using AI to do the final editing and RGB output. Clearly no human eyes on the final images, or if there were, that person didn't check properly.

[Orion1871]

Has he ever been to an AI conference in Bradford?

[Webster750]

Being in the industry, I would say that's a classic case of the club paying a photographer to take the raw images, then using AI to do the final editing and RGB output. Clearly no human eyes on the final images, or if there were, that person didn't check properly.

I imagine you’re right. You only have to look at the training kit (https://fanstore.readingfc.co.uk/produc ... irt-junior) and see that the badge appears to read “Rediing”, despite it seemingly being an entirely legitimate product shot. And it’s still live and available after this BBC report…

Running those raw images through even the most basic photo-editing app would presumably do a better job of correcting issues like that than the AI has. So why they’re choosing to use it in this way is beyond me.

[SouthDownsRoyal]

FWIW, I would assume Stuart has next to no influence over this and it’s instead an overworked and underqualified individual in the team running everything through ChatGPT etc.

There are also other items still on the store with such misspellings. They seem to have run a lot of images through AI, which is bizarre.

Overworked doing what for 37.5 hours a week?

[Green]

Has he ever been to an AI conference in Bradford?

What would Eric Hitchmough say?

[stealthpapes]

Has he ever been to an AI conference in Bradford?

lol

[MR. CYNICAL]

Has he ever been to an AI conference in Bradford?

Brilliant

[RoyalBlue]

FWIW, I would assume Stuart has next to no influence over this and it’s instead an overworked and underqualified individual in the team running everything through ChatGPT etc.

There are also other items still on the store with such misspellings. They seem to have run a lot of images through AI, which is bizarre.

Overworked doing what for 37.5 hours a week?

Imagine how overworked the likes of Tim Kilpatrick were - doing three or four jobs in the Dai era!

[RoyalBlue]

doesn't this encapsulate the AI story beautifully:

1. save money on human photographers by using AI

2. don't bother to do a human QC

3. end up with a reputational hit and embarrassing story on the BBC


well, at least its only images and typos for a 3rd tier football club - imagine if it was a centre of excellence for AI....

oh...

I'm old enough to remember when spell-check first appeared and people were over reliant on it and/or not educated enough to spot when it had got things wrong or misunderstood the context in which a word was being used. Being completely reliant on technology, without any qualified human oversight, can be a recipe for disaster.