Norwegian football team, HamKam 2, have hired an AI coach – and the “artificial one” decided to play nine strikers and stuck the goalkeeper on throw-ins
A Norwegian football team have hired an AI coach.
HamKam 2, who’s senior play in Norway’s Eliteserien, were taken over by “the artificial one” as they tried to bring the sport into the future.
Norway haven’t been represented on the global stage since Euro 2000, and in a bonkers experiment HamKam 2 looked to bring a new edge to Norwegian football.
The team joked if a German can coach England, AI can coach them.
In theory, a video on the club’s YouTube channel said, it should be the smartest coach on the planet. The supercomputer would answer any football question in real time based on real match data from NFF.No.
However, the results were questionable – HamKam 2 did take the lead from the spot thanks to its knowledge of which way the opposition goalkeeper would dive.
But it then decided to stick the goalkeeper on throw-ins, because he has the biggest hands. And then went all out attack with a 1-0-9 formation.
HamKam 2 were hammered 6-1, and their fans suspicions about the AI coach were proved correct.
Of course, it was all in jest and a publicity stunt from sponsors Eidsiva, tech and energy company.
Martin Hoff Pederson, Senior Communications Advisor at Eidsiva, said: “It was both interesting and reassuring to have our hypothesis confirmed: technology works best when it plays on the same team as people.
“This project shows that technology on its own doesn’t cut it, especially in such a human-centered role. The human manager should be back in charge now – and rightly so.
Mehran Ansari, HamKam’s manager, added: “Football and tech are moving fast – and many teams focus on datasets and Moneyball. We wanted to see what would happen if we went all the way.
“We were almost impressed by how quickly the players brought into the idea – even if things escalated a little during the match…”
