A Smashing Serve: AI-powered Commentary at Wimbledon
This year’s Wimbledon tournament is about to ace its technology game. The All England Club is introducing commentary and captions powered by artificial intelligence (AI) to enhance the viewing experience.
IBM, the whizz behind the technology, has stated that the new insights will enable tennis aficionados to unearth anomalies and potential plot twists in the singles draw that wouldn’t be immediately obvious from merely scrutinizing the players’ rankings.
IBM has trained its Watson AI platform to master the “unique lingo of tennis”, and the All England Club has allowed the platform to access player statistics such as the power index, which dissects performance, as reported by The Daily Telegraph. Initially, the technology will supply captions for highlights reels online, but there’s a possibility of progressing towards live AI commentary.
Wimbledon has been employing AI for its statistics packages since 2017, creating the power index and other stats.
IBM’s Kevin Farrar emphasized that the company doesn’t view the technology as an eventual substitute for human commentary, but more as an aid to enhance the viewing pleasure.
Farrar explained, “I view AI as something that enhances the human element, rather than usurping it. You can’t replace John McEnroe’s commentary – that human touch needs to be ever-present. It’s about augmenting and enhancing.”
As for Wimbledon’s vision, it’s about providing future commentary for matches that currently lack human commentary – think the seniors…
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