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Sports activities commentator Al Michaels appears on previous to the sport between the Chicago Bears and the Washington Commanders at Soldier Discipline on October 13, 2022 in Chicago, Illinois.
CNN
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NBC is bringing a model of famed sportscaster Al Michaels again to the Olympics this summer time with an unlikely twist: His voice can be powered by synthetic intelligence.
NBC introduced on Wednesday it would use AI software program to recreate Michaels’ voice to ship day by day recaps of the Summer season Video games for subscribers of its Peacock streaming platform, a milestone for the usage of AI by a significant media firm.
The usage of an AI voice for the Olympics comes because the expertise has grown by leaps and bounds, notably in its potential to create pictures, sound and textual content. That, in flip, has raised questions in artistic industries, similar to journalism, about how synthetic intelligence can – and even ought to – be used.
A brand new software, known as “Your Day by day Olympic Recap on Peacock,” will allow 10-minute highlights packages, which might embody occasions updates, athlete again tales and different associated content material customized by subscriber preferences.
The corporate mentioned the highlights might be packaged in about 7 million alternative ways, pulled from 5,000 hours of reside protection in Paris, successfully making AI (the factitious intelligence, not the person) a considerably extra environment friendly strategy to ship customized recaps.
“Once I was approached about this, I used to be skeptical however clearly curious,” Michaels mentioned in a press launch. “Then I noticed an illustration detailing what they’d in thoughts. I mentioned, ‘I’m in.’”
A NBC spokesperson instructed CNN Michaels is being compensated for his involvement.
Michaels, a long-time broadcaster, is at the moment the play-by-play sportscaster for Thursday Night time Soccer on Amazon Prime. He’s additionally recognized for his work on earlier Olympics Video games broadcasts for each NBC and ABC and for calling the Miracle on Ice Sport on the 1980 Winter Olympics in Lake Placid, New York.
NBC mentioned the AI system was skilled utilizing prior NBC broadcast audio from Michaels.
The corporate mentioned a group of NBC Sports activities editors will evaluate the entire content material, together with audio and clips, to verify every thing is factually correct and names are pronounced appropriately.
The highlights software can be accessible on Peacock by way of internet browsers and iOS and iPadOS apps beginning July 27.
