By OWOEYE TOLUWANIMI JANET
This summer, NBC will revive renowned sportscaster Al Michaels at the Olympics, but with an unexpected twist: artificial intelligence will be used to power Michaels’ voice.
NBC announced on Wednesday it will use AI software to recreate Michaels’ voice to deliver daily recaps of the Summer Games for subscribers of its Peacock streaming platform, a milestone for the use of AI by a major media company.
The Olympics will employ artificial intelligence (AI) speech technology, which has advanced dramatically in recent years, especially in terms of creating text, sound, and graphics. As a result, concerns have been expressed concerning the appropriate or even possible use of artificial intelligence in creative fields like journalism.
“Your Daily Olympic Recap on Peacock,” a new feature, will provide 10-minute highlights packages with material customized by member choices, including event updates, athlete backstories, and other relevant content.
According to the company, the highlights, which were taken from 5,000 hours of live footage in Paris, could be packaged in around 7 million different ways. This effectively makes using artificial intelligence—that is, AI, not humans—to create individualized recaps far more successful.
According to a news release, Michaels stated, “When I was approached about this, I was skeptical but obviously curious.” “After that, I witnessed a demonstration outlining their plans. “I’m in,” I declared.
A NBC spokesperson told CNN Michaels is being compensated for his involvement.
The veteran of the broadcasting industry, Michaels calls the plays for Thursday Night Football on Amazon Prime. In addition, he is well-known for his work on earlier NBC and ABC broadcasts of the Olympic Games and for calling the Miracle on Ice game during the 1980 Winter Olympics in Lake Placid, New York. According to the company, all of the content—audio and video—will be examined by a group of NBC Sports editors to ensure that all facts are right and names are pronounced appropriately. Starting on July 27, Peacock users can use the highlights feature through web browsers as well as iOS and iPadOS apps