IBM and the U.S. Tennis Association unveiled new digital fan features for USOpen.org and the U.S. Open app, including AI-generated spoken commentary powered by IBM's watsonx AI and data platform.
This innovative technology provides fans with detailed audio narration and captions for highlight videos of every singles match across all seventeen courts, enhancing the viewing experience during the U.S. Open tournament, according to a new release.
"Fans accessing the U.S. Open digital experiences this year will be able to experience every singles match, across all 17 courts, with detailed audio narration and captions accompanying each video – thanks to the power of IBM's watsonx generative AI, specifically trained on the language of tennis," Senior Vice President of Communications and Marketing at IBM Jonathan Adashek said in the release. "The AI commentary feature was developed based on the watsonx enterprise-ready data and AI platform, designed to enable businesses to accelerate generative AI work by leveraging foundation models and machine learning in one place, with their own data."
The incorporation of AI-generated spoken commentary is aimed at providing fans with a more immersive and insightful encounter as they relive pivotal moments from the tournament, the release reported. This groundbreaking technology, powered by IBM's watsonx AI and data platform, introduces a new dimension to fan engagement.
The core of this AI commentary lies in the utilization of models crafted, trained and deployed through the watsonx platform. Throughout the entirety of the tournament, this AI-driven innovation will autonomously produce intricate audio narrations and captions to accompany highlight videos of the U.S. Open, achieving an unprecedented level of scale, the release said.
This feat is achieved for every singles match across all 17 courts, a testament to the robustness of IBM's AI technology, according to the release.
To bring the IBM watsonx powered AI commentary to fruition, IBM iX, the experience design partner within IBM Consulting, harnessed the expertise of their experts. Collaborating with the USTA, they harnessed foundation models within watsonx and tailored them to the unique language of tennis, the release reported.
The generative AI, built upon these foundation models, was seamlessly integrated into a hybrid cloud infrastructure facilitated by Red Hat OpenShift. The outcome is a captivating commentary featuring diverse sentence structures and rich vocabulary, elevating the informative and captivating essence of the video clips, the release noted.
Augmenting the comprehensive array of enhancements is the novel IBM watsonx powered AI Draw Analysis. This pioneering tennis statistic leverages both structured and unstructured data from IBM Power Index and Likelihood to Win, culminating in projections that delineate the competitive advantage or disadvantage of all players participating in the singles draw, the release reported.
At the onset of the tournament, each player will be endowed with an IBM AI Draw Analysis, subject to daily updates as the tournament progresses and players advance or exit the competition. These ranked draws empower fans to delve into individual matches, comprehending the projected challenge level and potential opponents, according to the release.
