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IBM , and All-England Lawn Tennis Club announced new features for the Wimbledon digital fan experience at this year ’ s championships . A new AI feature , leveraging generative AI technology from IBM watsonx , will produce tennis commentary for all video highlights packages during Wimbledon

In a first for tennis , the IBM AI Draw Analysis feature will also provide a new statistic to define how favourable the path to the final might be for each player in the singles draw .

The new features expand on the suite of digital tools for fans on the Wimbledon App and wimbledon . com . They are the latest examples of how IBM and Wimbledon are using technology to help fans engage with The Championships on a deeper level .

The new AI Commentary feature will provide fans watching match highlights videos with audio commentary of key moments , along with captions , which they can toggle on or off . The tool has been designed to give fans a more insightful experience when catching up on key moments from matches with highlights videos on the Wimbledon App and wimbledon . com .

To develop the new feature , experts from IBM iX , the experience design partner within IBM Consulting , worked with The All- England Club to leverage foundation models from watsonx , IBM ’ s enterprise AI and data platform , to train the AI in the unique language of tennis . Generative AI built on these foundation models was applied to produce narration with varied sentence structure and vocabulary to make the clips informative and engaging .

Another new feature IBM will introduce this year is the IBM AI Draw Analysis , the first statistic of its kind in tennis , which uses AI to define how favourable the path to the final might be for each player in the singles draw . A player ’ s draw favourability will be indicated with a rating along a scale , based on factors including the player ’ s match-ups against potential future opponents and how the player ’ s position in the draw compares to competitors . This new insight will help tennis fans to uncover anomalies and potential surprises in the singles draw , which would not be apparent by looking only at the players ’ ranking , inspiring more debate and engagement in the fan community .

The new features being introduced this year will add to the suite of AI-powered digital tools for fans available on the Wimbledon App and wimbledon . com . They include the IBM Power Index board , IBM Match Insights and Personalised Highlights Reels and Recommendations .

Using over 100,000 data points from every shot played across the tournament , analysed by IBM ’ s Watson AI technology on IBM Cloud , these digital features are designed to make it easier for fans to understand which players to follow , how they compare to their opponents and who ’ s likely to win . Fans are kept updated and engaged throughout the tournament with fresh insights tailored to the players they are following . •

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