When it comes to jobs, nothing is off limit.
Many believe the impact on jobs will not be that great. This is something I disagree with. Nowhere is this more evident than in entertainment.
I wrote a number articles about the issues facing Hollywood. The integration of technology, however, is not limited to film and television shows.
One area that could get disrupted is sports.
Obviously, those on the field are not replaceable. Sure, robots might be able to perform sporting events but it isn't the same. As for AI, well it isn't the NBA or any other league.
But what about announcers?
Image generated by Ideogram
ESPN is already in the AI game. It is using the technology to summarize sporting events that are not covered as well.
This weekend, ESPN began publishing AI-generated recaps of women’s soccer games, with more sports to come. It’s using Microsoft AI to write each story, with humans only involved in reviewing each recap for “quality and accuracy.” ESPN says these stories will “augment,” rather than detract from, its other content — but needless to say, people have feelings about it.
This is not a new concept. The summarizing of events by AI has been done by the likes of Google and news agencies. ESPN is not trying to fool anyone. It is well known these are summaries written by AI.
Why is this important?
To start, it puts ESPN in the game. As we move further into the AI world, people are being conditioned to embrace the content provided by the AI models. Summaries of events is a good way to do this.
Over time, as things advance, we will likely see this move to the main sporting events. In other words, aLL the personnel for the entity could be at risk.
What comes next could be surprising: the replacement of announcers could be something that is on the table at some point.
Obviously, the big names doing the NFL are probably safe for a while. That said, much like the summaries, the less covered leagues could see the announcers being AI.
We already saw the abilities in the ChatGPT 4.o demo. As a conversationalist, it held its own. What is to say, that in a generate or two, it would not get to the point where it could announced simply by looking at the video on the screen?
When it comes to the technology we are dealing with, this is as bad as it gets. In other words, it will only get better from here.
That means the capabilities will keep expanding with time. As this happens, more jobs will have targets. Could sports announcers be one of them?
It was something that was an absurd idea a year ago. In fact, it was not even thought of. Today, it might still be a bit outlandish but one that cannot completely be ignored.
How many other jobs will fall into this category over the next year or so? What happens when ChatGPT 5.0 emerges?
Interesting times ahead.
