r/nottheonion • u/ToffeeFever • 8d ago

NBC Will Debut an A.I. Al Michaels for the Paris Olympics

https://www.si.com/olympics/nbc-will-debut-an-ai-al-michaels-for-paris-olympics
545 Upvotes

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605

u/mixduptransistor 8d ago

I'm sure Al Michaels thinks it's great cos they're probably paying him a lot of money to use his voice. The first couple of these will be the talent getting most of what they'd get anyway, to soften the ground, before eventually they pay next to (or actually) nothing in the future

228

u/wooyouknowit 8d ago

And forget about new actors getting any work when they could just put some AI character actor that we all vaguely know in every little role

109

u/gatsby712 7d ago edited 7d ago

Get Johnny Carson back on the tonight show and just have AI write his jokes based off of current events.

I am also ready to see Tom Hanks be cast into every movie with a captain that loses his plane, ship, etc

61

u/davisyoung 7d ago

“Looks like those clowns in Congress did it again. What a bunch of clowns.”

32

u/BombTheDodongos 7d ago

How does it keep up with the news like that?

11

u/tayroc122 7d ago

Don't praise the machine

7

u/RobertEdwinHouse38 7d ago

That leads to AI Ed McMahon. Then AI Publisher’s Clearinghouse Sweepstakes, then AI Magazine subscriptions, then AI Columbia House CD and VHS clubs. Where will it end?

AI Napster vs AI Metallica

4

u/Captain-Cadabra 7d ago

AI ED is just a button on the desk that makes the poorly animated robot say, “HIYOOO!”

4

u/labretirementhome 7d ago

cries in Robot Geoff

1

u/ThePhantomPansy 7d ago

Careful, Icarus.

3

u/ZachMN 7d ago

Will probably evolve into ED-209.

1

u/Lauuson 7d ago

We've already had AI Ed McMahon the whole time.

1

u/trainbrain27 7d ago

Do not travel with that guy!

He even got trapped on an island during the pandemic!

-4

u/RunninADorito 7d ago

That's, like, not a thing. It's already settled law that you can't use someone's likeness for free. Back to the Future settled that one.

2

u/xSilverMC 7d ago

Give it two years and there'll be another SAG AFTRA strike because some jackass studio exec tried putting "you forfeit the rights to your voice and we can use an AI of it for free forever" in a contract again

53

u/RoboTronPrime 8d ago

It's true that Al Michaels will be fine. But young up-and-coming talent won't be.

9

u/Dr-McLuvin 8d ago

Al Michaels III is screwed.

5

u/gatsby712 7d ago

Joe Buck IV.

2

u/AvailableName9999 7d ago

Won't someone think of the nepobabies?!

24

u/draxlaugh 8d ago

They also probably have thousands of hours of material to work from, I mean the man has been working steadily for decades.

13

u/ToffeeFever 8d ago edited 8d ago

He's been a longtime face of US Olympic coverage ever since he covered ice hockey for NBC at the 1972 Sapporo Winter Olympics in Japan, infamous for NBC forgetting to bid separately for broadcast booths in-venue that they had to call taped highlights of events off television monitors in the studio set.

https://youtu.be/eSGfKfWXwI8?si=GzzLkNlDufhQ7DO7&t=1135

9

u/imtourist 8d ago

I had to do a Wiki check to see if Michaels had died. I guess just collecting money for not doing anything is nice however longer term NBC would rather just get rid of him, so he is kind of digging his own grave.

7

u/FantasticJacket7 7d ago

Dudes 79 years old....

4

u/Special-Garlic1203 7d ago

Someone already basically ripped it Scarlett Johansson's voice after she told them no, she wasnt interested. If they can't see where this is "going" when it's already here..... idk how to help people be less stupid.

2

u/jambonejiggawat 7d ago

I believe this is what Cory Doctorow calls the “Teddy Bear Effect.”

1

u/ajtreee 4d ago

If you have it forever, why have anyone else do it? or until they feel like it.

In the future all sports announcers are Ai Michaels!