NBC Will Debut an A.I. Al Michaels for the Paris Olympics

Will this be the last we hear from the A.I. broadcaster?

Michaels on the field before a football game. / Jerome Miron-USA TODAY Sports

Al Michaels is one of the most famous voices in the history of American sports. While he calls NFL games for Amazon these days, he still holds an emeritus role at NBC, the network that will broadcast the 2024 Paris Olympics. On Wednesday NBC announced that Michaels would be involved in their Olympics coverage, but not as an announcer. Instead, they are using artificial intelligence to have the broadcaster's voice narrate highlights for Peacock subscribers.

This sounds horrible. No, not the actual technology, but the very idea that NBC would try this. It's just Spotify's DJ with a more famous voice, saving you the trouble of scrolling through archery highlights.

NBC has announced that it will use A.I. to recreate Al Michaels’ voice for custom recaps during the 2024 Olympics. pic.twitter.com/eX5aTFBVen

— Front Office Sports (@FOS) June 26, 2024

Who asked for this? The answer is pretty obviously no one and yet here it is. On the long list of unnecessary uses of A.I., this is up there and that's without considering the immense resources that will be wasted to make it happen.

According to Vanity Fair, Michaels called the A.I. "astonishing" and "amazing," but who cares? Just because Al Michaels agrees that the Al Michaels voice sounds like Al Michaels doesn't mean it should exist.

If you think viewers are so desperate to hear his voice, just put him on the broadcast. Let him host a highlights show. It doesn't matter how much this actually sounds like Al Michaels because it's not. And now that NBC has the technology, how far can we be from them using it to call an actual live sporting event? Will they even wait until, well, you know...

It probably shouldn't be surprising that a company would do something like this, but it's still a shock to the senses. Just let people watch sports. Let real humans tell them what's happening.