The Missing Linespeople

Humans make mistakes. In replacing them with AI we strip away the emotions that make a match memorable

This year when you watch the Wimbledon matches, spare a moment to think of the linespeople. AI will replace the human. The linespeople are gone. We have made the game more precise and accurate. This is how the world of work is replacing not the human – but the human factor everywhere.

The painting is called The Missing Linespeople to draw your attention to the vulnerable and poor that AI pushes away. It reminds me of the efforts to push away and hide the poor and homeless before the dignitaries drive through town. Do you agree?

Humans make mistakes - just like AI. When they shout “FAULT”, the player could dispute it. There are tantrums. There are bets won and lost. McEnroe breaks his racquet in anger. The linesman does not buckle under pressure from the player. It is a moment when someone speaks truth to power.

We have silenced them with the antiseptic environment of ONE truth. A truth that you cannot dispute. The human has doubts. The machine does not. It creates a boring homogenous world that cannot handle diversity and difference of opinion.

Yes, they made mistakes. A call here, a disputed line there. But those imperfections weren’t bugs to be fixed—they were features of our humanity. The slight hesitation before a crucial call, the way a linesperson’s body language told its own story, the shared moment of uncertainty that made every point feel alive and contested.

We understand your drive toward perfection, but perfection is sterile. The wobbles, the human delays, the occasional error—these aren’t inefficiencies to eliminate. They’re the spaces where emotion lives, where drama breathes, where sport becomes more than mere data points.

Sport without human imperfection isn’t sport—it’s just very sophisticated accounting.