A.I. Is Going To The Olympics With Al Michaels’ Voice

The whole world has gone A.I. crazy. You can hardly read or listen to any content without A.I. being mentioned. And now thanks to NBC, A.I. is going to the Olympics with Al Michaels’ voice. In case you’ve been off-planet for awhile, A.I. stands for artificial intelligence. It refers to computer systems capable of performing complex tasks that historically only a human could do. Such as reasoning, making decisions, or solving problems.

What NBC plans to do is use an AI-generated version of Al Michaels’ voice during the summer Olympics. The broadcaster describes it as, “Your Daily Olympic Recap on Peacock” will feature narration from a “high-quality A.I. re-creation” of the legendary sports broadcaster’s speaking voice.

Michaels has had a long career in TV sports announcing beginning in 1971. He is well-known for his 40-year association with the Olympic games. In the 1980 Olympics he was on the call for the U.S. Men’s hockey team’s historic upset over the Soviet Union. He famously asked, “Do you believe in miracles? YES!”And he has also called plenty of NFL games including prime-time games on Thursday, Sunday, and Monday Football night.

His voice is iconic and easily recognizable. So I understand that NBC would like to include him in the Olympic games, especially since he will not be in attendance in Paris. So to make this happen the A.I. has been trained on the recordings of Michaels’ actual calls according to a Northeastern University article. The article also quoted Rupal Patel, professor of communication sciences and disorders.

“The use of AI, Patel says, will allow NBC to expand its coverage of the Olympics, which includes as many as 40 events happening concurrently. One person, she says, would never be able to narrate that many recap videos.”

A.I. Is Going To The Olympics With Al Michaels’ Voice

And for me that is the issue. Since there will be plenty of content to be narrated why not hire more sportscasters? Why not develop the next legendary sportscaster(s) to follow in the footsteps of Al Michaels or Bob Costas? If everything becomes A.I. generated will we still be hearing the voices of the same people 30 or 40 years from now?

I’m sure this is a money-saving move for NBC since they won’t have to pay for all the extra staff that would be needed. And yes it’s great that we can hear recaps of the event’s in the voice of Al Michaels. But it seems wrong to remove the human element from games that feature the best athletes from all over the world.

Sports often embody the human spirit, the best and worst of it. Can A.I. capture that essence? We’ll soon find out.

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