Why watch the summary of the matches in complete silence, if an AI can narrate them for you…
He Wimbledon tennis tournament it’s already running. And this year introduces a great novelty: an artificial intelligence from IBM as a commentator. We explain how to try it.
The Wimbledon tournament is the most prestigious in the world, along with Roland Garros. It has been playing since 1877. This year, unfortunately, Nadal is not there. But we have another Spanish star with a chance to win it: the number 1 in the world, Carlos Alcaraz.
In this 2023 edition, IBM, which is the official sponsor of the event, has trained its artificial intelligence Watsonx to become an expert tennis commentator.
This is how IBM’s tennis commentator AI works
watson x has studied tennis data, to learn its lingo, provided by The All England Lawn Tennis Club. He is also capable of analyze player and ball location tracking data, and the types of shots they taketo comment on them.
This generative artificial intelligence of IBM that acts as tennis commentator does not appear on television broadcasts. You have to go to Wimbledon appoh their website.
Enter the section Videosand search a match summary. By default the video has no comment. You must touch the headphones iconand choose the option AI commentary:
In the masculine parties there is a man’s voice, and in the feminine ones, a woman’s.
We have tested the AI with the video summary of the first match of Alcarazand we have to recognize that the result has been disappointing.
He artificial intelligence commentator hardly intervenes. And when it does, the AI says truisms like “cThe second set begins“, “could not reach the ball, thus losing the point“, either “Alcaraz’s electrifying match, who wins the match“.
This AI tennis commentator is still in his first year of journalism, and his tone of voice is as boring as waiting in traffic. But it is a start.
He Wimbledon tournament it has already begun, and has premiered commentators with artificial intelligence, in the video summaries of the matches. They do not contribute anything interesting, but surely they will improve soon.
