ESPN’s AI-generated sports recaps are already missing the point
The network is turning to AI to ‘augment existing coverage’ of less-followed sports.
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.
It’s not that ESPN is masquerading AI work as that of humans. In fact, each story advertises that it’s written by “ESPN Generative AI Services,” and ESPN includes a note at the bottom of each article about how the recap is based on a transcript from the sporting event.
ESPN isn’t the only news organization that does this; The Associated Press started using AI to write sports recaps back in 2016, and both organizations pitch this as a way to cover more underserved sports. In addition to soccer, ESPN will also use it for lacrosse.