Wimbledon 2023 Video Highlights Packages to Feature AI Commentary

Wimbledon is right around the corner and the prestigious tennis tournament has partnered with tech pioneers IBN to bring in a new feature to the coverage of the illustrious grass court open.

SW19 announced that the video highlights packages for the 2023 edition of the major will include commentary generated by IBM’s Artificial Intelligence. And the technological advancement will be available on Wimbledon’s official application and website, and will also be made available to BBC’s coverage of the major.

The cutting-edge tech could also be a precursor to being able to provide AI-generated commentary for live games during runtime in the near future.

IBM have worked with Wimbledon in the past, providing statistics and player indices using their AI.

IBM’s Watsonx AI has been fed with specific vocabulary pertaining to the sport and shall combine the same with the statistics and tennis records made available to the chatbot-style system to replicate the natural tennis vernacular and lingo.

The AI-generated commentary can also be converted into audio format by using another system.

It has been reported that the voice of a particular commentator can be cloned and used if need be, but as it stands, the voice to be used off the bat is completely generated.

The prestigious grass court tournament will begin on the 3rd of July and Spaniard Carlos Alcaraz, who replaced Serbian Novak Djokovic as the No.1 men’s player in the world after his victory at the Queen’s Club Championship earlier in the week will enter the major as the top seed.

However, defending champion Djokovic is the favourite to retain the title and extend his record-breaking grand slam title tally. The 36-year-old claimed his 23rd major trophy in Paris as he won the French Open title with his win over losing finalist Casper Ruud.