The Realness of Live Sports in an AI Generated World
Everything else is fake.
Since I was a little kid, I’ve always loved watching live sports. But over the past few years, something has shifted. I’m enjoying them more than ever. I crave turning on the Knicks on a weekday evening to watch Jalen Brunson play heroball in the fourth quarter. Or hearing Scott Hanson take me through every scoring drive on RedZone. Or, when he was still on the Mets, seeing Edwin Díaz trot out from the bullpen to close out a ninth-inning high-wire act.
The true unpredictability of live sports seems to grow more irresistible with each passing year. Is it because I’m getting older? Am I turning into my father, who for my entire life has been a die-hard fan of sports at all levels? Or is something else at play?
Yesterday, Lulu Cheng Meservey published another brilliant essay called Standing Out in 2026. In it, she writes:
In this world, the real has never been more precious, refreshing, special, rare.
As the creator of tech’s “Go Direct” manifesto, Lulu is, of course, referring to how CEOs and tech leaders should tell their stories in an AI-first world. But I can’t help wondering if the realness of live sports is the key reason I feel so captivated by them right now.
Sunday night’s division-settling game between the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Baltimore Ravens is a great example. There were multiple moments in the fourth quarter alone when anyone watching was certain they knew the outcome, only to be proven wrong. It was thrilling and unpredictable in a way I no longer recognize in most other forms of content I consume.
Social media feels staged or purely generated. Modern music is formulaic. TV is algorithm optimized. Movies are mostly repackaged IP (key word mostly: film still feels like the medium where we’re seeing pockets of true creativity and there were many standout examples in 2025).
But sports remain dynamic. A safe haven for true, unpredictable realness. As we increasingly question the authenticity of nearly everything, I expect more of us to find comfort in good, old fashioned athletic competition, whether it’s a slow, boring Tuesday night baseball game or the bleak heartbreak of a season-ending, blown field goal.