Major League Baseball players may soon have digital alter egos capable of chatting directly with fans, following a new licensing deal between a California artificial intelligence company and the league’s players association.
Genies, a U.S.-based tech firm, has signed an intellectual property agreement with MLB Players Inc., the business arm of the Major League Baseball Players Association, to create cartoon-style AI “companion” avatars of every player on an MLB roster. The avatars will allow fans to hold text and voice conversations online, asking players to explain in-game decisions or discuss recent performances. “This isn’t actually Shohei Ohtani,” Genies CEO Akash Nigam told CBC News. “This is his Genie, and his Genie happens to know everything about him.”
According to CBC News, the agreement is structured as a blanket licensing deal, meaning it covers every player in the league rather than requiring individual negotiations. The company says the avatars will operate exclusively on the Genies website at launch. They will be able to recall past conversations and respond using large language models from OpenAI, ElevenLabs and Google.
MLB AI avatar licensing deal raises new questions about image rights and control
Blanket licensing arrangements are not new in professional sports. They allow leagues and players’ associations to efficiently commercialize athlete likenesses across merchandise and media platforms. Dave Stern, partner and head of the sports and entertainment law group at Blaney McMurtry LLP in Toronto, told CBC that negotiating individual deals with every athlete would be impractical in contexts such as trading cards or video games. “It would be really inefficient to have to go and turn around to every athlete and start to negotiate to allow them to be on a trading card,” Stern said.
The introduction of AI avatars, however, adds a new dimension to that model. Unlike static images or gameplay renderings, conversational avatars simulate interaction. They respond in real time, retain memory of prior exchanges and present themselves as extensions of a player’s identity.
Stern noted that some players may want to be “meaningfully consulted” in how their likeness is rendered, particularly if the avatar is going to represent them in an interactive environment. While the licensing structure allows the deal to proceed at scale, individual athletes may still exercise certain rights or object to aspects of their inclusion.
For Canadian businesses observing developments in digital licensing, the deal illustrates how intellectual property frameworks are being applied to emerging AI products. Where image rights once governed photos, endorsements and game appearances, they now extend to conversational digital entities capable of ongoing engagement.
The scope of control becomes a central issue. Who determines the boundaries of what an avatar can say? How closely must it adhere to a script? What safeguards are in place to prevent reputational harm?
Nigam told CBC that Genies is taking a cautious approach in its initial rollout. “These are conservative to start,” he said, adding that the company has invested in security and moderation to ensure characters stick to a script. “I can’t promise 100 per cent of edge cases have been accounted for,” Nigam said, referring to unexpected scenarios that may arise outside an AI system’s intended parameters.
Marketing AI companions to young fans brings moderation and governance into focus
The avatars are being marketed to children and teenagers, particularly those who already spend time on gaming and chat platforms such as Roblox, Fortnite and Discord. Each of those platforms has faced scrutiny in recent years over moderation practices and privacy concerns.
The youth-facing element introduces additional governance considerations. Interactive AI systems that learn from repeated conversations must be monitored to prevent inappropriate exchanges or misuse. While Genies has said it is pressure-testing the product with information security experts, the company acknowledges that unknowns remain.
Beyond technical safeguards, the initiative highlights the evolution of fan relationships in the age of artificial intelligence. Lynn Zubernis, a clinical psychologist and professor at West Chester University in Pennsylvania who studies fandom, told CBC that one-sided relationships between celebrities and fans are not inherently harmful when boundaries are understood. The risk emerges, she explained, when expectations become blurred. The use of cartoon-like avatars may mitigate some of that concern, but it does not eliminate it.
From a commercial standpoint, the project reflects a broader effort to deepen engagement beyond traditional social media. Nigam described the challenge as shifting from a one-to-many dynamic to something more individualized. Instead of following a player through posts or highlights, fans would be able to interact with a personalized digital representation.
For Canadian employers and rights holders in sports, entertainment and media, the MLB agreement offers a case study in how collective licensing structures are adapting to artificial intelligence. It demonstrates that existing intellectual property mechanisms can be extended to new formats, but it also underscores the importance of clarity around consent, moderation and brand protection.
Artificial intelligence is increasingly being layered onto established commercial models rather than replacing them outright. In this instance, the familiar framework of group licensing enables rapid deployment of a new technology. How athletes, fans and regulators respond may influence how widely similar arrangements are adopted across other leagues and industries.
As artificial intelligence becomes embedded in branded experiences, established licensing systems are being asked to accommodate tools that simulate personality as well as appearance. The MLB deal illustrates how scale can be achieved through collective rights, but it also underscores the importance of defining limits before products reach the public. For Canadian organizations exploring AI-driven engagement, the balance between expansion and individual oversight is likely to shape how these technologies are received.
