Smart Talks with IBM: An AI advantage for the US Open
Digest
This podcast delves into the innovative ways the U.S. Open is leveraging AI to transform the fan experience. Brian Ryerson, Senior Director of Digital Strategy at the U.S. Tennis Association, discusses the use of AI for generating match insights, spoken commentary, and post-match summaries. He highlights the partnership with IBM and how their technology powers the U.S. Open's digital platform, including features like AI highlights and match reports. Ryerson details the U.S. Open app and Slam Tracker, emphasizing how they provide fans with real-time information, insights, and a personalized experience. He explains the development of AI commentary and match reports, emphasizing the importance of accuracy and human intervention in ensuring quality. The podcast explores the use of generative AI in creating match reports, highlighting the challenges of data quality and risk management. Ryerson discusses the challenges of scaling AI for the U.S. Open, where they need to generate summaries of multiple matches simultaneously. He reflects on the broader challenges and opportunities of using AI in sports, discussing the importance of data quality, risk management, and the potential for AI to personalize content and reach fans in new ways. The podcast concludes with a speed round of questions about AI, providing insights on the future of AI in business, common misconceptions about AI, and advice for those entering the field.
Outlines
The Future of Sports: AI and the U.S. Open
This episode explores how the U.S. Open is using AI to enhance the fan experience, including generating match insights, commentary, and personalized content.
The U.S. Open's Digital Strategy and AI
Brian Ryerson discusses the U.S. Open's digital strategy, focusing on how they use technology to engage fans and provide them with a comprehensive experience. He highlights the importance of storytelling and how they use AI to create personalized content for different types of fans.
The IBM Partnership and AI Development
Brian Ryerson explains the long-standing partnership between the U.S. Open and IBM, emphasizing how IBM's technology and expertise have been instrumental in developing the U.S. Open's digital platform. He discusses specific projects like AI highlights and match reports.
The U.S. Open App, Slam Tracker, and AI Features
Brian Ryerson details the features of the U.S. Open app and Slam Tracker, highlighting how they provide fans with real-time information, insights, and a personalized experience. He explains how AI is used to generate predictions, analyze matches, and create visualizations.
AI Commentary, Match Reports, and the Future of AI in Sports
Brian Ryerson discusses the development of AI commentary and match reports, explaining how these features use AI to generate concise and informative summaries of matches. He emphasizes the importance of accuracy and the role of human intervention in ensuring the quality of the AI-generated content. He also reflects on the broader challenges and opportunities of using AI in sports, discussing the importance of data quality, risk management, and the potential for AI to personalize content and reach fans in new ways.
Keywords
U.S. Open
The U.S. Open is one of the four Grand Slam tennis tournaments, held annually in Flushing Meadows, New York. It is known for its high level of competition and its vibrant atmosphere.
IBM
IBM is a multinational technology company that provides a wide range of services, including cloud computing, artificial intelligence, and data analytics. They are a long-standing partner of the U.S. Open.
Generative AI
Generative AI is a type of artificial intelligence that can create new content, such as text, images, and audio. It is being used in a variety of applications, including sports, to generate summaries, commentary, and other forms of content.
Watson X
Watson X is a suite of AI and data tools from IBM that helps businesses to build, deploy, and manage AI models. It is used by the U.S. Open to power their AI-driven features.
Slam Tracker
Slam Tracker is a live scores and match center feature on the U.S. Open app that provides fans with real-time data and insights about matches. It uses AI to generate predictions and analyze matches.
AI Commentary
AI commentary is a technology that uses AI to generate spoken commentary for sports events. It is being used by the U.S. Open to create highlights and summaries of matches.
Match Reports
Match Reports are concise summaries of tennis matches that are generated using AI. They provide fans with a quick overview of the key events and outcomes of a match.
Data Quality
Data quality is a critical factor in the success of AI models. The accuracy and reliability of the data used to train and run AI models directly impact the quality of the outputs.
Risk Management
Risk management is essential when using AI, particularly generative AI. It involves identifying and mitigating potential risks, such as the generation of inaccurate or harmful content.
Q&A
How is the U.S. Open using AI to enhance the fan experience?
The U.S. Open is using AI to generate match insights, spoken commentary, and post-match summaries, providing fans with a more comprehensive and engaging experience. They are also using AI to personalize content and reach fans in new ways.
What are some of the challenges of using AI in sports?
Some of the challenges of using AI in sports include ensuring data quality, managing risks, and scaling AI to handle large amounts of data and content.
What is the future of AI in sports?
The future of AI in sports is bright, with the potential to personalize content, reach fans in new ways, and enhance the overall fan experience. AI can help to create more immersive and engaging experiences for fans, both on-site and online.
Show Notes
As AI technology progresses, its impact on our daily lives—including how we consume our favorite sports— will grow alongside it. In this episode of Smart Talks with IBM, Jacob Goldstein, host of Pushkin’s own What’s Your Problem?, sat down with Brian Ryerson, Senior Director of Digital Strategy at the US Tennis Association. They discuss the impact of data on the fan experience, the role that storytelling plays in sports, and how AI has unlocked innovative features, such as AI Commentary and Match Reports.
This is a paid advertisement from IBM. The conversations on this podcast don't necessarily represent IBM's positions, strategies or opinions.
Visit us at https://ibm.com/smarttalks
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Table of contents
United States
