The Olympic Games have ancient beginnings. Now, they will also have a dose of the latest technology.
This year, the highlights of the Summer Olympics will be brought to you by artificial intelligence and, more specifically, Al Michaels' ai-generated narration.
Executives at NBCUniversal and streaming service Peacock said Wednesday that a personalized daily video of Olympics highlights would be available to streaming subscribers. The reel will feature the voice of Michaels, the 79-year-old American broadcaster who first covered the Olympics decades ago.
Michaels, however, won't be hiding in a broadcast booth every night to briefly recap the dozens of Olympic events that took place. Instead, the Peacock show has trained itself on NBC clips of Michaels (he joined the network in 2006 and was its longtime “Sunday Night Football” host) to formulate coherent, realistic-sounding sentences, who “will provide their distinctive expertise and elocution,” the company said.
Mr. Michaels approved the use of his voice.
“When I was asked about this, I was skeptical but obviously curious,” Michaels said in a statement released by the company. “Then I saw a demo that detailed what they had in mind. I said, 'I'm in.'”
It raises a key question, reminiscent of Mr. Michaels' question. The most famous Olympic callDo NBCUniversal executives believe in miracles?
NBC has been exclusively broadcasting the Olympics in the United States since 1996, and the network frequently finds itself subject to intense public scrutiny for its coverage of the Games.
Handing over the keys to ai adds a new risk to the mix: ai-generated Al Michaels is almost certain to attract interest given his novelty. And there has been no shortage of stories of embarrassing blunders, face-plants and mildly alarming hallucinations as ai has gone mainstream over the past 18 months.
Subscribers who want to watch Peacock's daily highlights will be able to choose the Olympic events they are most interested in and the types of highlights they want to see, such as viral clips, gold medalists, or knockout events.
From there, Peacock’s ai machines will get to work each night to generate the most notable moments and assemble them into a personalized, curated package. Mr. Michaels’ recreated voice will be heard on the reels. (Humans will perform quality checks on the ai highlight reels.)
NBCUniversal officials said they expected seven million different variations of custom highlights throughout the games. Highlights will appear in the Peacock app for users who sign up.
Brian Roberts, president of Comcast, parent company of NBCUniversal, debuted Al Michaels' new clip at an event to introduce ai-Al (officially called “Your Daily Olympic Digest on Peacock”).
The germ of the idea, Roberts said, was born from a meeting months ago when executives from Comcast and NBCUniversal said: “What could we do with ai? How can we leverage ai purely for fun and for good?
After Roberts gave a demonstration, he added, “we strive to invent and innovate and develop something better over and over again.”
The Olympics come at a crucial time for NBCUniversal. Peacock lost almost $3 billion last year and is far behind rivals like Netflix or Disney+ in terms of total subscribers. But the streaming service has seen strong subscriber growth over the past year and has leaned on sports to help it get there. In January, Peacock showed the first streaming-only National Football League playoff game.
The Olympic Games, which begin on July 26, are a totally different test. In addition to daytime and primetime broadcasts on NBC and a number of cable networks, Peacock will play a prominent role in the company's Olympic coverage and will broadcast all Olympic events.
Kelly Campbell, president of Peacock, called the new ai tool a “major breakthrough” in an interview and said that if it worked, it could soon populate the streaming platform in other ways; maybe Andy Cohen summaries ai for Bravo shows, she said. .
“For me, this version I want to do for every sporting event and show we have on Peacock,” he said. “This is something that really makes a difference. “We are in a sea of similarities and having something that really sets you apart is really cool.”
