Like everything else these days, NBC-Universal’s coverage of this year’s Olympic Games will have an AI dimension.
On its streaming service, Peacock, the network will offer “Your Daily Olympic Recap,” a ten-minute series of highlights from the previous day’s coverage narrated by an AI-generated version of the voice of Al Michaels. Michaels has been providing play-by-play coverage in big-league American sports since the early 1970s and will continue to do so for the present Olympics.
“When I was approached about this, I was skeptical but obviously curious,” NBC quotes Michaels as saying. “Then I saw a demonstration detailing what they had in mind. I said, ‘I’m in.’”
The voice has been trained on archival recordings of Michaels from his time with NBC, which goes back to 2006. This was when ESPN, which had just purchased the rights to Monday Night Football (a huge, longtime weekly NFL broadcast), traded Michaels to NBC in exchange for the return of the rights to a cartoon character, Oswald the Lucky Rabbit. You see, Oswald was a prototype for Mickey Mouse and designed by Walt Disney himself. ESPN was owned by ABC, where Michaels had spent 30 years, and ABC was owned by Disney. But we digress. (You can read all about it at ESPN.)
By cloning Michaels, NBC has found a way to produce about seven million variants of the Recap. It will draw on specials and 5,000-odd hours of live coverage from Paris and its environs, with its 329 medal events, up to 40 of them going on simultaneously. Subscribers to Peacock can choose three favorite sports or other topics, such as behind-the-scenes footage, trending moments and specific teams, and the AI will put something together for them. Most users can submit their first names and have AI-Michaels address them personally. Up to six users per subscription can have their own playlist.
NBC will not, however, launch Recap like a fire-and-forget missile. A team of editors at NBC will review the AI’s work before it goes out. Recap coverage will begin on June 27, with the opening ceremony.
NBC will be fielding some 150 commentators for the games, some of them, like Michaels, veteran broadcasters, some of them athletes and celebrities. The network has purchased the rights to the Olympics for the US market through 2032.
