Oh boy. I can’t wait for this to backfire in a spectacular and completely predictable manner.
NBC to use AI-generated version of Al Michaels' voice during Summer Olympics
Submitted 4 months ago by Wilshire@lemmy.world to technology@lemmy.world
Comments
dual_sport_dork@lemmy.world 4 months ago
Voroxpete@sh.itjust.works 4 months ago
They’re presumably going to be doing this live. If someone manages to hack into the component that feeds text in…
dual_sport_dork@lemmy.world 4 months ago
Not even. We just need it to trip over the pronunciation of something, preferably the same thing more than once, and then both the news and social media will latch onto it like a pit bull and with any luck they’ll never live it down.
AbouBenAdhem@lemmy.world 4 months ago
Michaels, 79, told Vanity Fair in an interview published Wednesday that he was initially “very skeptical” of the proposal from NBCUniversal executives — until he heard the AI-generated version of his speaking voice, which is capable of greeting viewers by name.
Was this a phone interview, by any chance?
AstralPath@lemmy.ca 4 months ago
Greeting viewers by name? Not in my fucking house. AI should be a tool to rid humanity of undesirable work. Instead its replacing humanity in every field where humanity is the main event. Why the fuck would I ever want to listen to a fucking robot while I watch the Olympics, or anything for that matter?
Buy dumb TVs. Make your next phone a Pixel and install Graphene OS. Ditch Windows/MacOS for Linux. Use ProtonMail. Run a Pi-Hole on your network. Do anything you can to take control of your digital footprint in any way.
Don’t let corporations freely suck your data dry and exploit your life for profit while force feeding you their elaborate fakery. Its impossible to insulate yourself from it all but any step towards digital privacy is the right step to take.
ch00f@lemmy.world 4 months ago
What a coincidence that the best broadcaster who ever lived or will ever live happened to be alive in time for us to record him and immortalize his voice to use for generations to come.
That’s why we’re doing this, right? Because there’s no other human alive who is capable of reading a script as well?
NOT_RICK@lemmy.world 4 months ago
Yeah fuck having a potential future replacement do the recap instead. I guess I should add the word human to that last sentence because it sure as shit seems they are testing out his actual replacement.
11111one11111@lemmy.world 4 months ago
STOP! BOTH OF YOU! Do you fucking want more Chris Collinsworth? Cuz this is how you get more Chris Collinsworth.
yesman@lemmy.world 4 months ago
There is a concept in post-modern philosophy called “hauntology”. This theory posits that late-capitalist societies loose their ability to imagine different social orders; and cannot imagine the future except as high-tech versions of the current social order. To fill the void of novelty, the culture industry must constantly recycle and repackage old culture.
Anyway, this isn’t a new phenomena, just a technology enabling us to resurrect live people instead of just fictional characters.
Carmakazi@lemmy.world 4 months ago
I’ve thought about this a lot. I think its more the sheer oversaturation of “culture” than it is a true lack of imagination. People alive today consume exponentially greater amounts of “culture” (for the broadest term possible) than anyone ever before, and it’s not even close.
When tech enables you to experience a movie or a video game or a performer 30 years after the death of everyone involved, in essentially the same fidelity as the day it debuted, “old culture” has a much harder time making way for “new culture.” If Star Wars exists, why care about Rebel Moon or whatever that movie was called?
I think the public consciousness can only maintain cognizance and interest in so much, but at the same time creatives are constantly adding to the Culture Pile. But the more tech enables us to hold on to our past, it becomes more and more difficult to move on, and the majority of new stuff goes unwanted and unappreciated. And so the mass market dives into keeping the old alive with reboots, remakes, remasters, and now AI recreations, because that’s what people respond to.
paraphrand@lemmy.world 4 months ago
We fuckin on the fisher bed tonight.
catch22@programming.dev 4 months ago
Michaels uttered perhaps the most famous six words in the history of sports broadcasting at the 1980 Lake Placid Winter Olympics after the U.S. hockey team triumphed over the Soviet Union in a stunning upset: “Do you believe in miracles? Yes!”
It’s tragic that the humanity of these types of things that are understood by humans will be lost in AI.
NOT_RICK@lemmy.world 4 months ago
They’re gonna call this pile of shit idea A.I. Michaels and act all smug about it, aren’t they?
palordrolap@kbin.run 4 months ago
If we tried this in the UK with someone like, say, the late David Coleman, I'm not entirely sure anyone who remembers him would be able to distinguish - other than, as I said, the knowledge that he's been gone for quite some time now.
Coleman, was considered a go-to commentator for decades despite being gaffe-prone even at the best of times. He was occasionally oblivious and apparently lacking any self-awareness too. (He did kind of learn to laugh at himself though and was a good, well, sport, about it all.)
Sounds very AI to me. Come to think of it, he may even have been kept around precisely because of the entertainment value.
I assume that Al Michaels is not of this bizarre calibre and it wouldn't take long for people to notice.
autotldr@lemmings.world [bot] 4 months ago
This is the best summary I could come up with:
NBC plans to use an artificial clone of legendary sports broadcaster Al Michaels’ voice to narrate its daily streaming recaps of the Summer Olympics in Paris, the company announced Wednesday.
re-creation" of Michaels’ voice, trained using his past appearances on NBC in order to match his “signature expertise and elocution,” the streaming service announced.
Michaels, 79, told Vanity Fair in an interview published Wednesday that he was initially “very skeptical” of the proposal from NBCUniversal executives — until he heard the AI-generated version of his speaking voice, which is capable of greeting viewers by name.
Michaels uttered perhaps the most famous six words in the history of sports broadcasting at the 1980 Lake Placid Winter Olympics after the U.S. hockey team triumphed over the Soviet Union in a stunning upset: "Do you believe in miracles?
The announcement comes as artificial intelligence technologies attract wider public attention and scrutiny, inspiring equal parts amazement and anxiety.
NBCUniversal’s streaming service launched nearly four years ago in an increasingly crowded field of competitors that now includes Netflix, Disney+, Paramount+, Max and Apple TV+.
The original article contains 408 words, the summary contains 179 words. Saved 56%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!
cupcakezealot@lemmy.blahaj.zone 4 months ago
it’s like al michaels but without the bonkers right wing beliefs.
Lost_My_Mind@lemmy.world 4 months ago
Can the world just STOP with it’s bullshit already??? Stop with everyday needing to obsess over trump in the news. Stop with finding new, and bizzare uses for AI when it offers no benefit, stop with companies scheming together to collectively cause inflation, stop with corporations buying houses to artificially increase rent, stop with 48% of the nation actively supporting political facism.
JUST STOP WITH THE BULLSHIT!!! WHY ARE WE DOING ANY OF THIS???
Crackhappy@lemmy.world 4 months ago
That might be the most appropriate username possible for this rant.
Lost_My_Mind@lemmy.world 4 months ago
When I saw this in my notifications, without context I thought you were replying to my comment about 18 foot tall ants in the Jurassic period building stonehedge.
Verito@lemm.ee 4 months ago
I think you already know the reason is money. Exploiting others isn’t demonized, it’s celebrated as “innovative” and “clever” and “entrepreneurial spirit.” That is the system, held up, and propagandized by, the exploiters. We’re taught that violent protest is “uncivil” or “barbaric,” because it’s the only thing that truly threatens the system, which otherwise holds a monopoly on violence, to prop up that system.
simplejack@lemmy.world 4 months ago
So people share and promote their coverage, so NBC can sell ad spots.
If you’re commenting on the story, you’re boosting the story, and that’s exactly what NBC wants.
PythagreousTitties@lemm.ee 4 months ago
It’s the new toy everyone is playing with.
That’s the only way I can rationalize it. It’s not money, cuz everything being done with in a product blows.
givesomefucks@lemmy.world 4 months ago
It’s about money, because the people making the shit products want to make money, not good products.
Capitalism always leads to “how shitty of a product will people still buy”
afraid_of_zombies@lemmy.world 4 months ago
Were you going to even watch the Olympics on NBC anyhow? Last time it played I tried to watch a few events and it was nothing but ads and profiles of people I don’t care about.
Like I get you are upset but I don’t know why. For me it’s like hearing some Austrian version of Ticketmaster are being assholes. Ok, I don’t live in Austria and if I did I still probably wouldn’t use whatever version of Ticketmaster they might have there.
Why is it so important to hear Al Micheals tell you about what you just saw? Do you even have a cable TV subscription?
Lost_My_Mind@lemmy.world 4 months ago
You don’t need a cable subscription to watch NBC. Just a regular old bunny ears antenna. You could even use one from the 1940s if you want!
I know not many do, but I even have a lifetime paid subscription to TIVO. So I can just record things whenever, and watch them whenever, without the ads. I never watch live tv…but I watch tv that was recorded as it was live.
SayJess@lemmy.blahaj.zone 4 months ago
simplejack@lemmy.world 4 months ago
Who is they and who is us?
Lost_My_Mind@lemmy.world 4 months ago
I’m in! What do you have in mind?
helenslunch@feddit.nl 4 months ago
We will as soon as he stops making news.
Lost_My_Mind@lemmy.world 4 months ago
I read a headline a few weeks ago that he fell asleep in court, and farted. Literally all he did was take a mid day nap, and fart in his sleep. Just like any person of that age does on a daily basis. The only reason it’s news, is because people click the stories, and read the articles, and drive ad revenue for the media companies.
An old man sleeping and farting in court is now news…but anything is news if you MAKE it news.
All news is, is a business to sell ad dollars. Just like any entertainment show on traditional TV. The difference is, if you watch Seinfeld, the media doesn’t stalk Jerry in real life, and try to sell “news” stories that Jerry ate at a certain resteraunt, and ordered a certain sandwich. The tabloids and papparazi may do that, but you won’t find out that Jerry Seinfeld ate a ruben sandwich at Joe’s Deli on the 11pm news. Because it’s not news…but if you try to MAKE it news, you could try to sell some controversy that Joes Deli supports neonazis, and Jerry is supposed to be Jewish. Nevermind the fact that the media behind the scenes is basically creating a false narrative by tying Joes Deli to a wholesale meats distributor that also distributes meat to the Neo Nazis. But if they spin the other way, they can make news out of anything.
And just for the record, that was a hypothetical example. Completely fictional for the sake of explaining the concept.
Most of what Trump says/does is NOT news…but if you MAKE it news, now the news can make money off of it, and will continue to shovel this crap down your throat. The media did the same thing in the 90s with Clinton. Yes, he got a blowjob. No it wasn’t his wife. That should have been like a quick news story on a slow day. Instead that went on for like 4 years. Clinton should have just said “Yeah, I got laid! You wanna get laid too? Get on up here, Janet Reno! You like doggy style? Because I don’t want to see your face…”
I assume EVERY president, basically since Washington, has gotten laid in the oval/oral office. But it’s not news. Hell, Obama was a good looking man. I assume he basically used the white house as the new playboy mansion. What woman would have turned that down? And if they DID turn him down, that’s fine. There’s a line, honey. NEXT! Unlike Trump, who I ALSO assume got laid in the white house many times…usually with the exchange of money.
When did The Onion go from being an absurdist insider joke about ACTUAL fake news, to making news gags that would be considered on the sensible side of lifes absurditys?
GladiusB@lemmy.world 4 months ago
Username checks out