Topic / Subject
A Hornets executive quote is being recirculated as “AI draft strategy” proof, crediting an AI and computer vision partner for helping validate draft analysis.

TL;DR
The verifiable piece is the corporate material and quote about AI powered film analysis helping decision making. The viral “AI picked the player” framing is still hype.

Key Details
• Invisible Technologies published a Hornets case study describing computer vision extracting movement data from game film and generating performance metrics.
• In the Invisible document and a Business Wire release, Hornets VP Patrick Harrel is quoted praising high quality data and saying the insights were valuable to decision making.
• Yahoo Sports recaps the story as “AI draft strategy” chatter, with social accounts pushing a more dramatic framing.
• The strongest viral wording, like AI “gifted” a specific pick, is not presented as a clean Hornets statement in the intake.

Breakdown
This is a great example of how a real quote becomes a bigger internet story. An executive praises a tool that helps quantify film, and the timeline turns it into “AI drafted the guy.”

The grounded version is still interesting. Computer vision can turn film into trackable data, like movement, spacing, and decision speed, then package it into metrics scouts can compare across players.

The overreach is causation. Even if the Hornets used AI outputs, a draft decision is still a mix of scouting, interviews, medical, fit, and front office philosophy. The tool can inform, but it is rarely the sole driver.

So the headline should be “AI helped their process,” not “AI made the pick,” unless the team explicitly says that.

What to Watch Next
• Any Hornets statement that clarifies how the tool was used in their scouting workflow
• More detail on what the computer vision model actually measured and how it was validated
• Whether other teams publicly credit similar partners, which would show a league wide trend
• Any follow up reporting that separates corporate marketing language from on court decision reality

Sources
Business Wire — “Invisible Technologies Raises $100 Million…” (Hornets and Harrel quote referenced)
Invisible Technologies — “Forward Deployed Engineering…” PDF case study (Hornets and Harrel quote)
Yahoo Sports — “Hornets executive says an AI system…” (headline not provided)

Comment
Do you want teams to be transparent about what AI tools they use in scouting, or is that competitive advantage something they should keep quiet?