Wimbledon is set to introduce artificial intelligence-powered commentary for coverage of this year’s tournament.
The competition, which takes place between July 3 and July 16, will use cutting edge new technology to broadcast the biggest matches from SW19.
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The All England Club has teamed up with technology giants IBM to offer AI-generated audio commentary and captions in its online highlights videos.
It will use IBM’s watsonx AI platform, which has been trained in the “unique language of tennis” with the help of the All England Club, as well as including AI-powered analysis of singles draws, examining how favourable a player’s path to the final might be.
The service will be available on the official Wimbledon app and website and will be separate to the BBC’s coverage of the event, with the television broadcasters using human commentators.
Kevin Farrar, Head of IBM’s Sports Partnerships, said: “We are using a generated voice. It’s not a real voice. It’s not based on a specific person.
“The commentary is being generated from the stats, forehand, backhand, etc.
“We had tennis specialists on the team, so we drew on them in terms of the language it will use. It’s not based on an individual and their style.
“You can see in the future that you could train it in different styles, languages, voices. So this is a step on that journey.
“I see AI as very much complimenting the human element.
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“You can’t replace John McEnroe doing commentary, that human element always needs to be there.
“It’s very much about supplementing and complementing.
“For Wimbledon, it’s about providing commentary in the future on matches that don’t currently have human commentary – the seniors, juniors, wheelchair matches.
“So for all instances it’s about complimenting the human element rather than replacing.”
