NBC during the Paris Games will offer a daily personalized highlight reel on Peacock for viewers using an AI version of Al Michaels' voice, and Michaels himself "was 'very skeptical' of the proposal -- until he heard the AI for himself," according to Tom Kludt of VANITY FAIR. Michaels “was left in awe of the nuance” -- the way it “captured his intonations and verbal subtleties.” He said, "It was astonishing. It was amazing. ... It was not only close, it was almost 2% off perfect. I’m thinking, Whoa.” He added, “They were able to do exactly what I might -- I shouldn’t say ‘exactly.’ It sounded like what I might say in certain situations.” Kludt noted the feature, called Your Daily Olympic Recap on Peacock, will “pull from thousands of hours of live coverage.” The multilayered process “will yield around 10 minutes’ worth of highlights for each user.” NBC pointed out that there “could be nearly 7 million personalized variants of the recaps.” Kludt noted the experience would have been “impossible unless Michaels was fully on board.” Michaels: “This was born of curiosity because I’m a very curious person. I was approached about this project and didn’t really understand too much about it.” Michaels views Peacock’s feature as a “way to keep him in the mix” during the Games. He said, “Even though it’s an odd way to transition to something -- not calling the events, not really recording anything -- it does keep me somewhat attached to the Olympic Games, which I’ve always loved” (VANITY FAIR, 6/26).
