Wimbledon 2023 will feature AI-generated commentary for the first time. Throughout this year's event, the All England Club will utilise artificial intelligence commentary for video highlight packages on its website and app. The highlights will be produced in collaboration with Wimbledon and IBM's enterprise AI and analytics platform, Watsonx.
Wimbledon has utilised technology before; their statistical packages and power rankings were already created using AI. Even so, it will represent a significant advancement in the use of such technology at the competition, which has advanced and expanded significantly over the past year with the release of language learning modules like Chat GPT-4, prompting calls for a halt in AI development due to concerns that it might be abused in the future.
IMB AI draws analysis, a new tool from Wimbledon and IMB Watsonx that will be available in addition to the commentary will employ computer technology to predict how advantageous a player's path to the final would be depending on their ranking and tournament draw.
The technology might eventually be used to simulate tennis personalities and voices, according to Kevin Farrar, IBM's head of sports partnerships, with a view to eventually using the technology to commentate live events. “You can see in the future, you could train it in different styles and it opens up other possibilities in the future, around different languages, different voices. This is a step on that journey," added Farrar.
