Expect To Hear Al Michael's Voice During The Olympics, Thanks To AI

TV & Film

Jul 1

Since the release of Chat GPT back in November 2022 and the rise of people using AI for things like art and animation, it's clear that artificial intelligence is playing a larger and larger part in people’s day-to-day lives. AI voices have been a thing for a while, but primarily with pre-written scripts being read. In what many will likely view as a venture into the acoustic version of the uncanny valley, an AI will be summarizing events of the Olympics in the voice of famous commentator Al Michaels.

“When I was approached about this, I was skeptical but obviously curious,” said Michaels, known for commentating alongside John Madden, both live and in the Madden video games. He has also commentated on several Super Bowls and has notable baseball, hockey, and Olympic credits to his name. “Then I saw a demonstration detailing what they had in mind. I said, ‘I’m in.’” The technology is called “Your Daily Olympic Recap on Peacock”, and is designed to give a 10-minute summary of the previous day’s highlights in a way that matches Michaels’ signature expertise and elocution. NBC said that the technology will pull from over 5000 hours of footage, and will be able to create over 7 million different recaps.

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