ESPN’s next sports commentator is an AI avatar

If you’re a football fan and interested in AI, you’ll be intrigued to hear what ESPN is planning to introduce to its college football coverage.

ESPN has announced it is trialing a new AI avatar called FACTS, which the network will test on its popular college football show, SEC Nation. FACTS is being built to deliver “pre-game discussions, promoting education and fun around sports analytics.” The data will be sourced from ESPN Analytics, which includes data like player and team statistics, game schedules and the Football Power Index (FPI). ESPN made the announcement at its fourth annual ESPN Edge conference.

It’s unclear when the AI avatar will make its debut, as ESPN says “integration timing is still being discussed.” FACTS is built on Nvidia Omniverse, and is integrated with Azure OpenAI to handle language processing and ElevenLabs, an AI audio platform, for text-to-speech capabilities. The generative AI avatar is being developed at the ESPN Edge Innovation Center.

FACTS is meant to complement on-air talent

ESPN says FACTS isn’t going to replace journalists

With the rise of AI over the past couple of years, one concern about it has always been what its effect could be on the job market. In this case, the effect it could have on journalists at ESPN.

In a press release, ESPN states its new AI avatar is “absolutely not” meant to replace journalists or on-air-talent. “FACTS is designed to test innovations out in the market and create an outlet for ESPN Analytics’ data to be accessible to fans in an engaging and enjoyable segment,” ESPN said. “It complements our journalists and on-air talent, providing additional insights.”

This isn’t the first time ESPN has utilized AI technologies. Earlier this year, the sports network added generative AI to its website via AI-written game recaps. It’s hard to judge ESPN’s FACTS AI avatar without first seeing it in action, but it’ll be interesting to see if it has any personality to it, and how college football fans react to AI giving them analytics over a human being. Do AI analysts have a role in the future of live sports? FACTS could be the first real test.

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