SEND IN THE CLONES: NBC Brings A.I. Al Michaels to Peacock for Customized Paris Olympics Recaps.

Michaels, as one would expect, approved the use of his voice, which was trained on his years of work for the broadcaster.

“When I was approached about this, I was skeptical but obviously curious,” Michaels said. “Then I saw a demonstration detailing what they had in mind. I said, ‘I’m in.’”

Michaels has worked on NBC’s Olympics coverage since 2010 (back when he was at ABC, he called the legendary “Miracle on Ice” game), and also was the lead play-by-play announcer for NBC Sunday Night Football. Michaels currently works in the booth for Amazon’s Thursday Night Football.

Notably, an NBCU executive says that a team of NBC Sports editors will review all of the content before it is able to be added to the recaps “for quality, validation and accuracy,” including the pronunciation and intonation of certain names or events.

That addresses one of the big concerns around generative AI, namely around accuracy and context. Having humans check the system before generating the recaps adds a layer of protection.

Still, the artificial intelligence Al Michaels is a major move into generative artificial intelligence from a major media company, one that may provide a template for future offerings, where talent is looped in and (presumably) compensated for their work.

In other 21st century headlines: Tom Hanks, Robin Wright Find Love While De-Aged in Robert Zemeckis’ ‘Here’ Trailer.

The Hollywood Reporter reported last year that Hanks and Wright are de-aged in the movie through the generative AI-driven tool called Metaphysic Live. “With Here, the film simply wouldn’t work without our actors seamlessly transforming into younger versions of themselves,” Zemeckis explained at the time.

Here marks a reunion for Zemeckis, Roth, Hanks and Wright, who all previously collaborated on 1994’s Oscar-winning film Forrest Gump, celebrating its 30th anniversary next month. Forrest Gump picked up six Academy Awards, including best picture, in addition to wins for Hanks for best actor, Zemeckis for best director and Roth for best adapted screenplay.

Hopefully the technology has advanced sufficiently since 2019’s The Irishman, Martin Scorsese’s glacially-paced made-for-Netflix gangster film starring Robert DeNiro, Al Pacino and Joe Pesci as digitally de-aged waxworks versions of themselves, but the shots featured in Here’s trailer do not look promising: