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The WNBA recently announced a multi-year partnership with Amazon Web Services (AWS) to “power new A.I.-driven experiences.” It's AWS's first partnership with a women's sports league, and the company is reportedly striving to “elevate how fans experience and understand the game” by “leveraging AWS’s cloud and artificial intelligence capabilities" to “turn real-time player tracking data into easy-to-understand insights.”

Obviously, A.I. is everywhere (even as the bubble seems primed to burst), including the WNBA. Caitlin Clark recently called out the Fever's social team for using A.I.-generated graphics. At the same time, plenty of players have partnered with A.I. companies, from Paige Bueckers and A'ja Wilson doing Gemini ads, to Kelsey Plum chatting up her A.I. twin. But what makes these deals especially interesting is that they seem to misunderstand their audience: by every indication, WNBA fans really hate A.I.

Maddy Brown, who runs the social media account WNBAdata, used analytics to show that when WNBA players post about A.I., the comments from fans are overwhelmingly negative. Many of the comments express personal support for the athletes themselves, while criticizing their decision to shill for the technology. Their reasons range from general “A.I. is evil” arguments, to concerns about environmental impact and artistic theft.

“Paige[,] look up what AI data centers are doing to poor Black and Brown neighborhoods and rural areas,” one commenter urged Bueckers. “They are running out of water.”

“you have said that you only partner with brands that you agree with and support, so what exactly do you agree with?” another asked. “Water shortages? Artist art being stolen?”

The tone was similar on Plum’s page. “As a native Californian, a state that is fresh water challenged … wtaf are you doing supporting water sucking data centers via AI?" asked one commenter, citing Plum's California roots (and perhaps also nodding to the fact that Plum currently plays in Los Angeles). “Using AI takes up so much energy and resources and literally is not worth it,” another commenter said. “AI data centers are intentionally built in low income communities and cause a lot of real harm. Do better.”

WNBA fans tend to be among the most politically and socially progressive of any sports league (as are its players, fwiw). They often hold individual players to certain standards, especially an athlete like Bueckers, who has been vocal about vetting and approving every brand deal she signs. As the WNBA becomes more mainstream and embraces the late-stage capitalist hellscape of investment and growth at any cost, it seems to be losing touch with the people who make up a huge part of its viewership.

The AWS partnership and player brand deals are coming at a time of growing worry about A.I. usage and its impacts. According to a June 2025 study from the Pew Research Center, half of American adults say they are more concerned than excited about the increased use of A.I. in daily life. That number has gone up from when Pew asked Americans the same question in 2021, when only 37% of respondents were more concerned than excited. 

As fears about A.I. multiply, women are increasingly being tapped as the faces of the new technology, something The Cut recently dubbed “the girlbossification of A.I.” Famous women are using the language of feminism to encourage other women to use A.I. tools and close the “A.I. gender gap." Data shows that women have been slower to adopt A.I. technology than men, leading to fearmongering that they are stunting their careers. “Personal growth” guru and author Mel Robbins recently partnered with Microsoft Copilot and began urging women to “lean in” to the use of A.I. tools to avoid being “left behind when it comes to using technology that is shaping the way work is evolving.”

Kelsey Plum used similar language while explaining her decision to partner with the A.I. communications company Talk2Me to develop an A.I. twin. “It’s where we are in society,” Plum told Fast Company, “and I think you are either gonna get with it or get lost.”

But, as Tressie McMillan Cottom writes for the New York Times, there is no feminist case for the adoption of A.I: “Nobody wants a parasocial bestie who shills for the plutocrats who are nullifying their votes, degrading their educations, jacking up their power bills, stealing their wages and rigging the system.” Public opinion has firmly shifted, and many people who care about the planet, the future, and the health and safety of their communities refuse to board the A.I. train. Campus commencement speakers are being roundly booed for shilling A.I., and Robbins received major backlash for telling women to upload their financial documents to Microsoft Copilot (!!!).

On a recent podcast, the CEO of an A.I.-infrastructure consulting firm acknowledged that people “hate” the technology, citing the finding from an NBC News poll that A.I. is less popular than ICE. “And much like ICE,” Marisa Kabas writes at The Handbasket, “A.I. has sunk its claws into communities that don’t want it”—like WNBA fandom. 

The league’s AWS partnership will likely receive less criticism than the players’ individual brand deals because (concerns about Amazon as an evil corporation aside) advanced level stats is the kind of function that many people feel A.I. may actually serve well. The partnership may actually provide a positive service by helping the league fill the stats gap that still exists between women’s and men's sports. The WNBA also signed an A.I. analytics deal with Genius Sports earlier this year, becoming the first pro sports league to use the company’s “optical tracking technology” to provide advanced statistics. There was also seemingly less criticism when the Chicago Sky and Angel Reese partnered with an app that used A.I. to block online abuse and harassment from players’ social media feeds.

But for every aspect that A.I. might (and that’s a big “might”) improve about the fan and player experience, there's a mountain of concerns behind it. The wave of negative A.I. sentiment just keeps getting stronger. The question is: Will the people making these deals ever notice, and what will it take?

This newsletter was edited by Louis Bien.