The Masters Leans Into Generative AI

When you think of AI, the first platforms that come to mind are Microsoft
MSFT
-backed ChatGPT, Alphabet’s Bard, and Adobe Firefly. But IBM’s
IBM
Watson, the AI that tubthumped Ken Jennings at Jeopardy! and sits at the core of the Masters digital experience has been on a comeback trail of late. Big Blue currently contends as a leader in multiple Gartner Magic Quadrants including cloud-based AI developer services and conversational AI platforms, tech all teed up for golf’s first major.

The Masters app, now in its fifteenth iteration, may only be in full bloom for one week every April but what could just be the most robust second screen in sports has become an essential part of the viewing experience for golf fans.

“One of the goals is to replicate the amazing experience people have onsite if they’re visiting Augusta National but do it in a digital way. It’s always about improving the connectivity between the fans and the players on the course,” Noah Syken, IBM’s vice president of sports and entertainment partnerships, said.

While it can’t replicate a drive down Magnolia Lane or emulate that first bite into a pimento cheese sandwich at Augusta National’s surprisingly easy on the wallet concession stands, it provides fans with over ten-fold the action available on the television broadcast.

Fans fully direct their viewing experience, whether that means selecting the TV feed, the featured group or honing in on the action at Amen Corner. There is also the ability to completely choose your own adventure by handpicking a group of specific golfers to follow as they make their way around the course. With no commercial interruptions and coverage of every single shot, the ‘my group’ option often feels more immersive than the broadcast.

This year the app’s major upgrade is the addition of generative AI announcers who take on sportscasting duties for the thousands of shots hit by golfers that do not get air time.

While artificial intelligence cannot yet emulate Jim Nantz’s soothing timbre and inimitably warm delivery, the Watson powered golf bots are pitch perfect in proper Masters lingo—the rough is the 2nd cut, the front and back nine are referred to as the first and second nine and fans are patrons. They are also keenly aware of the context and the conditions at all times: where the ball lies, the distance to the hole and what club the golfer is using. They are also programmed to mix it up so the commentary doesn’t start to feel like a broken record.

“If a putt is hit four times in a row you will get four different reactions. One of the design points was to eliminate redundancy and repetitiveness. I’m not sure that you are going to get as much emotion as Jim Nantz might express but you will get variation,” Syken said.

In previous editions if you were following any non-featured group, the soundtrack attached to the visuals would be limited to chirping birds and the impact sounds of ball-meets-club so the upgrade is very noticeable.

IBM has long used the app and website as a vehicle to showcase their latest technology in action. The same foundational models leveraged to school their artificial intelligence on golf and facilitate the automation of spoken commentary onto video show-up in their enterprise customers systems.

“The same capabilities that run The Masters [digital experience] are the same capabilities that run Fortune 500 companies around the world: same AI, same cloud, same cybersecurity, same IBM Consulting,” Syken said.

In some cases tech-capabilities have debuted in the app ahead of a product launch.

“Maybe four or five years ago we launched Watson Media products on the backs of our sponsorship work,” he added.

Before its new speaking part, generative AI has been lurking in the backend of the app for a few years now as a supporting technology, automatically identifying highlights for the ‘Round in Under Three Minutes’ feature and Watson also sifts through reams of data in the service of producing player insights and projections.

Another tweak has those predictions now adjust on a hole-by-hole basis with fans able to glean projected final scores when perusing each player’s digital scorecard.

“You’ll visit Tiger Woods and you’ll see two scorecards: the actualized scorecard and the predictive scorecard. Every time a player completes a hole, that prediction will change and it’s not only going to change for their round, but it’s going to change for everybody else’s round. We’re going to have over a quarter of a million predictions refreshed over the course of the tournament,” Syken explained.

A watch party mode, similar to the Netflix extension Teleparty, has also been added to provide a group screen experience. This mobile-only feature allows fans to chat with friends while watching.