Within the American sports field, there are few voices as recognized and beloved as that of Al Michaels. The veteran commentator will be part of the Olympic broadcast, but not in the way many expect. For this occasion, NBC has decided to use AI to synthesize Michaels’ voice and use it to narrate the daily summaries of the Paris Games.
The long-awaited Paris Olympic Games will begin on July 26. After that, we will have a month full of 24-hour competitions, which makes live streaming very challenging. This is where artificial intelligence and Michaels’ artificially recreated voice will come into play.
The American network NBC proposed to the commentator to recreate his voice using this technology, something he accepted not without showing some skepticism first. However, after listening to the AI imitate his voice, he was amazed. The synthetic Michaels’ work was so good that he didn’t hesitate to describe it as “terrifying” in Vanity Fair.
Rick Cordella, president of NBC Sports, described Michaels as the “perfect choice” for this role. He also praised the presenter for “embracing this technology with such enthusiasm.” With Your Daily Olympic Recap, accessible through Peacock, we will be able to enjoy a personalized summary of the sports we choose.
Artificial intelligence continues to make its way. This time, the destiny of this technology has been to replicate the voice of a famous American commentator. However, it is not the first time it has been used to recreate the voice or face of a person in the audiovisual world. On social media, we have cases like that of @yoursisbillie, a character created by Meta and powered by AI that uses the appearance of Kendall Jenner.
