Wimbledon now using AI commentary – and they could clone John McEnroe’s voice

Wimbledon will employ artificial intelligence to commentate on tennis this summer, it has been announced.

The All England Club has teamed up with IBM to use ChatGPT models to deliver commentary on its app for matches that would normally be silent. To create commentary, IBM will combine all the data from Wimbledon’s matches with it’s own AI language model, which is fine-tuned with tennis language.

It could soon lead to clone voices of the likes of John McEnroe overlaid on AI commentary on TV, with bosses saying the idea is already "technically feasible."

It could also be possible to bring a tennis commentator back from the dead, although some viewers could object to that. And there are fears over potential issues getting the approval of the pundits.

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IBM created AI golf commentary for the Masters this year for more than 20,000 video clips, but many viewers were less than impressed with the dull results.

Kevin Farrar, of IBM UK, said: "This is a stepping stone again on a journey where ultimately we would like to be able to generate AI commentary on full matches. It opens up other possibilities in the future, around different languages, different voices. This is a step on that journey."

Do you think AI commentary is good or bad for tennis? Let us know in the comments section below.

The AI model will be applied to highlights packages throughout Wimbledon, also generating captions to aid those with hearing difficulties. It will even generate analysis of the singles draws and provide insight on each player's potential path to the final.

This year's grass-court major will get underway on July 3, with Novak Djokovic and Elena Rybakina entering as defending singles champions. Djokovic, 36, is hoping to increase his record tally of 23 Grand Slam titles, having won the 2023 French Open to overtake Rafael Nadal.

The introduction of AI commentators is the latest sign of more integration with technology in tennis. The ATP Tour announced in April that electronic line calls will be used instead of on-court line judges to 'optimise accuracy and consistency across tournaments' from 2025 onwards.

AI continues to make waves as one of the most controversial technologies embedding itself further into daily life in sport and beyond. A ground-breaking tool with massive implications for the way out world works, it's no surprise many have been left saying, 'You've got to be kidding!'

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